p-%: 






•; 




:dJli-i 



The Voyage of the ^Fox^ in the Arctic Seas. 
A NARRATIYE 

OF THE 

DISCOVERY or THE EATE 

OP 

SIR JOHN FRANKLIN 

AND 

HIS COMPANIOlSrS. 



By captain M'CLINTO CK, E.N., LL.D. 




WITU MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS, 



BOSTON: 
TICK NOR AND FIELDS. 

M DCCC LX. 






author's EDITIOW. 



DEDICATION. 



My dear Lady Franklin, 

There is no one to whom I could with so much pro- 
priety or willingness dedicate my Journal as to you. For you 
it was originally written, and to please you it now appears in 
print. 

To our mutual friend, Sherard Osborn, I am greatly 
obliged for his kindness in seeing it through the press — a 
labor I could not have settled down to so soon after my return ; 
and also for pointing out some omissions and technicalities 
which would have rendered parts of it unintelligible to an 
ordinary reader. These kind hints have been but partially 
attended to, and, as time presses, it appears with the mass of 
its original imperfections, as when you read it in manuscript. 
Such as it is, however, it affords me this valued opportunity of 
assuring you of the real gratification I feel in having been 
instrumental in accomplishing an object so dear to you; To 
your devotion and self-sacrifice the world is indebted for the 
deeply interesting revelation unfolded by the voyage of the 

' Fox.' 

Believe me to be, 

With sincere respect, most faithfully yours, 

F. L. M'CLINTOCK. 

London, 24th Nov., 1859., 



LIST OF OFFICERS AND SHIP'S COMPANY 
OF THE 'FOX/ 



F. L. M'Clintock, 
w. r. hobson, . 
Allen W. Young, 
David Walker, M.D., 
George Brands, . 
Carl Petersen, 
Thomas Blackwell, . 

Wm. Harvet, . 
Henry Toms, 
Alex. Thompson, 
John Simmonds, . 
George Edwards, 
EoBEKT Scott, 

Thomas Grinstead, . 
George Hobdat, . 
Egbert Hasipton, . 
John A. Haselton, 
George Carey, 
Ben. Pound, . 
Wm. Walters, . 
Wm. Jones, • 
James Pitcher, 
Thomas Flobancb, . 
Richard Shingleton, 
Anton Christian, . 
Samuel Emanuel, : 



Captain R. N. 

Lieutenant R. N. 

Captain, Mercantile Marine. 

Surgeon and Naturalist. 

Engineer, died 6tli Nov. 1858, (Apoplexy). 

Interpreter. 

Ship's Steward, died 14th June, 1859, 

(Scni'vy). 

Chief Quartermaster. 

Quartermaster. 
(( 

Boatswain's Mate. 
Carpenter's Mate. 
Leading Stoker, died 4th Dec. 1857, (in 

consequence of a fall). 
Sailmaker. 
Captain of Hold. 
A. B. 



Carpenter's Crew. 
Dog-driver. 

> Stokers. 

Officers' Steward. 
) Greenland Esquimaux, discharged in Green- 
J land. 



OFFICIAL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE 
SERVICES OF THE YACHT 'FOX.' 



Admiralty, Londo:?, 
Sir, 24th Oct. 1859. 

I am commanded by my Lords Commissioners of the 
Admiralty to acquaint you, that, in consideration of the im- 
portant services performed by you in bringing home the only 
authentic intelligence of the death of the late Sir John Frank- 
lin, and of the fate of the crews of the ' Erebus ' and ' Terror,' 
Her Majesty has been pleased, by her order in Council of the 
22nd instant, to sanction the time during which you were ab- 
sent on these discoveries in the Arctic Regions, viz., from the 
30th June, 1857, to the 21st September, 1859, to reckon as 
time served by a captain in command of one of Her Majesty's 
ships,^and my Lords have given the necessary directions ac- 
cordingly. 

I am. Sir, 

Your very humble servant, 

W. G. ROMAINE, 

Secretary to the Admiralty. 
Captain Francis L. M'Clintock, E.N. 



PEEFACE. 



The following narrative of the bold adventure 
which has successfully revealed the last discoveries and 
the fate of Franklin, is published at the request of 
the friends of that illustrious navigator. The gallant 
M'Clintock, when he penned his journal amid the 
Arctic ices, had no idea whatever of publishing it; 
and yet there can be no doubt that the reader will 
peruse with the deepest interest the simple tale of how, 
in a little vessel of 170 tons burthen, he and his well- 
chosen companions have cleared up this great mystery. 

To the honor of the British nation, and also let it 
be said to that of the United States of America, many 
have been the efforts made to discover the route fol- 
lowed by our missing explorers. The highly deserv- 
ing men who have so zealously searched the Arctic 
seas and lands in this cause must now rejoice, that 
after all their anxious toils, the merit of rescuing from 
the frozen North the record of the last days of Frank- 
lin, has fallen to the share of his noble-minded widow. 

Lady Franklin has, indeed, well shown what a der 
voted and true-hearted English woman can accom- 
plish. The moment that relics of the expedition com- 

vii 



Tui PREFACE. 

manded by her husband were brought home (in 1854) 
by Rae, and that she heard of the account given to 
him by the Esquimaux of a large party of EngUshmen 
having been seen struggling with difficulties on the ice 
near the mouth of the Back or Great Fish River, she 
resolved to expend all her available means (already 
much exhausted in four other independent expeditions) 
in an exploration of the limited area to which the 
search must thenceforward be necessarily restricted. 

Whilst the supporters of Lady Franklin's efforts 
were of opinion, that the Government ought to have 
undertaken a search, the extent of which was, for the 
first time, definitely limited, it is but rendering justice 
to the then Prime Minister* to state, that he had every 
desire to carry out the wishes of the men of science f 
who appealed to him, and that he was precluded from 
acceding to theu" petition, by nothing but the strongly 
expressed opinion of official authorities, that after so 
many failures the Government were no longer justi- 
fied in sending out more brave men to encounter fresh 
dangers in a cause which was viewed as hopeless. 
Hence it devolved on Lady Franklin and her friends 

* Viscount Palmcrston. 

tSee the Memorial (Appendix) addressed to the First Lord of the 
Treasury, headed by Admiral Sir F. Beaufort, General Sabine, and 
many other men of science, and which, as President of the Royal Geo- 
graphical Society, I presented to the Prime Minister ; and also tho 
speech of Lord Wrotteslcy, the President of tlio Royal Society, who, in 
the absence of tlio lamented Earl of EUesmere, brought tlio subject 
earnestly under the notice of the House of Lords on the 18th of July, 
1856. 



PEEFACE. ix 

to be the sole means of endeavoring to bring to light 
the true history of her husband's voyage and fate. 

Looking to the list of Naval worthies, who, during 
the preceding years, had been exploring the Arctic Re- 
gions, La,dy Franklin was highly gratified when she 
obtained the willing services of Captain M'Clintock 
to command the yacht ' Fox,' which she had pur- 
chased ; for that officer had signally distinguished him- 
self in the voyages of Sir John Ross and Captain 
(now Admiral) Austin, and especially in his extensive 
journeys on the ice when associated with Captain 
Kellett. With such a leader she could not but en- 
tertain sanguine hopes of success when the fast and 
well-adapted little vessel sailed from Aberdeen on the 
1st of July, 1857, upon this eventful enterprise. 

Deep, indeed, was the mortification experienced by 
every one who shared the feelings and anticipations 
of Lady Franklin when the untoward news came, in 
the summer of 1858, that, the preceding winter having 
set in earlier than usual, the 'Fox' had been beset in 
the ice ofi" Melville Bay, on the coast of Greenland, 
and after a dreary winter, various narrow escapes, and 
eight months of imprisonment, had been carried back 
by the floating ice nearly twelve hundred geographical 
miles — even to 63^° N. lat. in the Atlantic ! See the 
woodcut map. No. 1. 

But although the good little yacht had been most 
roughly handled among the ice-floes (see Frontispiece), 
we were cheered up by the information from Disco, 



X PREFACE. 

that, with the exception of the death of the engine- 
driver in consequence of a fall into the hold, the 
crew were in stout health and full of energy, and that 
provided with sufficient fuel and provisions, a good 
supply of sledging dogs, two tried Esquimaux, and 
the excellent interpreter Petersen the Dane,* ample 
grounds yet remained to lead us to hope for a suc- 
cessful issue. Above all, we were encouraged by 
the proofs of the self-possession and calm resolve of 
M'Clintock, who held steadily to the accomplishment 
of his original project; the more so as he had then 
tested and recognized the value of the services of 
Lieutenant (now Commander) Hobson, his able sec- 
ond in command ; of Captain Allen Young, his gen- 
erous volunteer associate ; f and of Dr. Walker, his 
accomplished Surgeon. 

Despite, however, of these re-assuring data, many 
an advocate of this search was anxiously alive to the 
chance of the failure of the venture of one unassisted 
yacht, which after sundry mishaps was again starting 
to cross Baffin's Bay, with the foreknowledge, that 
when she reached the opposite coast, the real difficul- 
ties of the enterprise were to commence. 
^ Any such misgivings were happily illusory ; and 

* Since his return to Ccpenhagcn, Petersen has been worthily honored 
by bis Sovereign with the silver cross of Dannebrog. 

t Captain Allen Young of the merchant marine not only threw his scr-- 
vices into this cause, and subscribed £500 in furtherance of the expedi- 
tion, but, abandoning lucrative appointments in command, generously 
accepted a subordinate post. 



PREFACE. ad 

the reader who follows JVPClintock across the "middle 
ice " of Baffin's Bay to Pond Inlet, thence to Beechey 
Island, down a portion of Peel Strait, and then 
through the hitherto unnavigated waters of Bellot 
Strait in one summer season, may reasonably expect 
the success which foUowed. 

"Whilst the revelation obtained from the long-sought 
records, which were discovered by Lieutenant Hobson, 
is most satisfactory to those who speculated on the 
probability of Franklin having, in the first instance, 
tried to force his way northwards through Wellington 
Channel (as we now learn he did), those who held a 
different hypothesis, namely, that he followed his 
instructions, which directed him to the S. W., may 
be amply satisfied that in the following season the 
ships did pursue this southerly course till they were 
finally beset in N. lat. 70° 05'.* 

At the same time, the public should fully under- 
stand the motive which prompted the supporters of 

* Eor a r€sum^ of all the plans of researcli and the speculations of sea- 
men and geographers, see the interesting and most useful Tolume of Mr. 
John Brown, entitled, 'The North- West Passage and Search after Sir 
John Pranklin,' 1858. In an Appendix to this work we leam, that 
from the earliest Polar researches by John Cabot, at the end of the 15th 
century, to the voyage of M'Clintock, there have been about 130 expedi- 
tions, illustrated by 250 books and printed documents, of which 150 have 
been issued in England. Amidst the various recent publications, it is 
but rendering justice to Dr. King, the fonner companion of Sir George 
Back, to state that he suggested and always maintained the necessity of 
a search for the missing navigators at or near the mouth of the Back 
River, 



xii PREFACE. 

Lady Franklin in advocating the last search. Put- 
ting aside the hope which some of us entertained, that 
a few of the younger men of the missing expedition 
might still be found to be living among the Esqui- 
maux, we had every reason to expect, that if the ships 
were discovered, the scientific documents of the voy- 
age, including valuable magnetic observations, would 
be recovered. 

In the absence of such good fortune we may, how- 
ever, well be gladdened by the discovery of that one 
precious document which gives us a true outline of 
the voyage of the ' Erebus ' and ' Terror.' 

That the reader may comprehend the vast extent 
of sea traversed by Franklin in the two summers 
before his ships were beset, a small map (No. 2) 
is here introduced representing all the lands and 
seas of the Arctic regions to the west of Lancaster 
Sound which were known and laid down when he 
sailed. The dotted lines and arrows, which extend 
from the then known seas and lands into the unknown 
waters or blank spaces on this old map, indicate Frank- 
lin's route, the novelty, range, rapidity, and boldness 
of which, as thus delineated, may well surprise the 
geographer, and even the most enterprising Arctic 
sailor.* For, those who have not closely attended 

* The letter A in Baffin Bay (llg. 1) indicates tlie spot where Franklin 
was last seen. In fig. 2, B is the winter rendczvons at Bccchey Island ; 
C the greatest nortliing of the expedition, viz. 77° N. lat. ; Z the final 
beset of the ' Erebus ' and ' Terror ; ' tho extreme north and south points 
of their voyage being ropr«sented by two small ships. 



PEEFACE. :aii 

to the results of other Arctic voyages may be in- 
formed, that rarely has an expedition in the first 
year accomplished more by its ships, than the estab- 
lishing of good winter quarters, from whence the real 
researches began by sledge-work in the ensuing spring. 
Franklin, however, not only reached Beechey Island, 
but ascended "Wellington Channel, then an unknown 
sea, to 77° N. lat., a more northern latitude in this 
meridian than that attained long afterw'^ards in ships 
by Sir Edward Belcher, and much to the north of 
the points reached by Penny and De Haven. Next, 
though most scantily provided with steam-power, 
Franklin navigated round Cornwallis' Land, which 
he thus proved to be an island. The last discovery 
of a navigable channel throughout, between Corn- 
wallis and Bathurst Islands, though made in the 
very summer he left England, has remained even 
to this day unknown to other navigators ! 

Franklin then, in obedience to his orders, steered 
to the south-west. Passing, as M'Clintock believes, 
down Peel's Strait in 1846, and reaching as far as 
lat. 70° 05' N., and long. 98° 23' W., where the ships 
were beset, it is clear that he, who, with others, had 
previously ascertained the existence of a channel 
along the north coast of America, with which the 
sea wherein he was interred had a direct commu- 
nication, was the first real discoverer of the North- 
West Passage. This great fact must therefore be 
inscribed upon the monument of Franklin. 
2 



xiT PREFACE. 

The adventurous M'Clure, who has been worthily 
honored for working out another North- Western pas- 
sage, which we now know to have been of subsequent 
date,* as well as Collinson, who, taking the ' Enter- 
prise' along the north coast of America, and afterwards 
bringing her home, reached with sledges the western 
edge of the area recently laid open by M'Clintock, will 
I have no doubt unite with their Arctic associates, 
Richardson, Sherard Osborn, and M'Clintock, in affirm- 
ing, that " Franklin and his followers secured the honor 
for which they died — that of being the first discover- 
ers of the North- West Passage." f 

Again, when we turn from the discoveries of Frank- 
lin to those of M'Clintock, as mapped in red colors on 
the genera} map, on which is represented the amount 
of outline laid down by all other Arctic explorers from 

*Iii 1850. 

t See a most heart-stirring skctcli of the last voyage of Sir Jolin Frank- 
lin, by Captain Slierard Osborn, in the periodical Once a Week, of the 22d 
and 29tli October and 5th November last. Possessing a tliorongii ac- 
quaintance ■with tlie Arctic regions, the distinguished seaman lias sliown 
more than liis ordinary power of description, in placing before tlio public 
his conception of what may liavc been tlie' chief occurrences in tlie voyage 
of the ' Erebus ' and ' Ten'or,' and the last days of Franklin, as founded 
upon an acquaintance with the character of the chief and his associates, 
and the record and relics obtained by M'Clintock. This sketch is pref- 
aced by a spirited and graceful outline of all previous geographical dis- 
coveries, from the day when they were originated by the father of nil 
modern Arctic enterprise. Sir John Barrow, to wliom, and to many other 
eminent persons, from Sir Edward Parry downwards, I have in varioua 
Geographical Addresses offered the tribute of my admiration. 



PKEFACE. xr 

the days when these modern researches originated with 
Sir John Barrow, we perceive that, in addition to the 
discovery of the course followed by the ' Erebus ' and 
' Terror,' some most important geographical data have 
been accumulated by the last expedition of Lady 
Franklin. 

Thus, M'Clintock has proved, that the strait named 
by Kenedy in an earlier private expedition of Lady 
Franklin after his companion the brave Lieutenant 
Bellot, and which has hitherto been regarded only as 
an impassable frozen channel, or ignored as a channel 
at all, is a navigable strait, the south shore of which is 
thus seen to be the northernmost land of the continent 
of America. 

M'Clintock has also laid down the hitherto unknown 
coast-line of Boothia, southwards from Bellot Strait to 
the Magnetic Pole, has delineated the whole of King 
William's Island, and opened a new and capacious, 
though ice-choked channel, suspected before, but not 
proved, to exist, extending from Victoria Strait in a 
north-west direction to Melville or Parry Sound. The 
latter discovery rewarded the individual exertions of 
Captain Allen Young, but will very properly, at Lady 
Franklin's request, bear the name of the leader of the 
' Fox ' expedition, who had himself assigned to it the 
name of the widow of Franklin.* : 

* In his volume before cited, p. xii., Mr. John Brown gave strong rea- 
sons (which he had held for some time) for believing in the existence of 
the very channel which now bears the name of M'Clintock. It is, how- 



xvi PREFACE. 

Neither has the expedition been unproductive of 
scientific results. For, whilst many persons will be 
interested in the popular descriptions of the native 
Esquimaux, as well as of the lower animals, the 
man of science will hereafter be further gratified by 
having presented to him, in the form of an addi- 
tional Appendix,* most valuable details relating to 
the zoology, botany, meteorology, and especially to 
the terrestrial magnetism, of the region examined. 

Lastly, M'Clintock has convinced himself, that the 
best way of securing the passage of a ship from 
the Atlantic to the Pacific, is by following, as near 
as possible, the coast-line of North America : indeed, 
it is his opinion, founded upon a large experience, 
that no passage by a ship can ever be accomplished 
in a more northern direction. This it is well known 
was the favorite theory of Franklin, who had him- 
self, along with Richardson, Back, Beechey, Dease, 
Simpson, and R.ae, surveyed the whole of that same 
North American coast from the Back or Great Fish 
River to Behring Strait. Thus, when Franklin sailed 
in 1845, the discovery of a North- West Passage was 
reduced to the finding a link between the latter sur- 
vey and the discoveries of Parry, who had already, 

ever, the opinion both of that officer and his associates, as also of Captain 
Sherard Osborn, that Franklin could not have reached the spot where his 
ships were beset by proceeding down that ice-choked channel, but that ho 
must have sailed down Peel Sound. 
* Mach of this Appendix will bo prepared by Dr. David Walker. 



PREFACE. xvii 

to his great renown, opened the first half of a more 
northern course from east to west, when he was 
areested by the impenetrable ice-barrier at Melville 
Island. 

And here it is to be remembered, that the tract 
in which the record and the relics have been found, 
is just that to which Lady Franklin herself specially 
directed Kenedy, the commander of the ' Prince Al- 
bert,' in her second private expedition in 1852; and 
had that intrepid explorer not been induced to search 
northwards of Bellot Strait, but had felt himself able 
to follow the course indicated by his sagacious em- 
ployer, there can be no doubt, that much more 'satis- 
factory results would have been obtained than those 
which, after a lapse of seven years, have now been 
realized by the undaunted perseverance of Lady Frank- 
lin, and the skill and courage of M'Clintock. 

The natural modesty of this commander has, I am 
bound to say, prevented his doing common justice, 
in the following journal, to his own conduct — con- 
duct which can be estimated by those only who have 
listened to the testimony of the officers serving with 
and under the man, whose great qualities in moments 
of extreme peril elicited their heartiest admiration and 
ensured their perfect confidence. 

In writing this Preface (which I do at the request 
of the promoters of the last search), I may state that, 
having occupied the Chair of the Eoyal Geographi- 
cal Society in 1845, when my cherished friend. Sir 
2* B 



xviii PREFACE. 

John Franklin, went forth for the third time to seek 
a North- West passage, it became my boundcn duty 
in subsequent years, when his absence created much 
anxiety, and when I re-occupied the same position, 
ardently to promote the employment of searching ex- 
peditions, and warmly to sustain Lady Franklin's 
endeavors in this holy cause. 

Imbued with such feelings, I must be permitted 
to say, that no event in my life gave me purer de- 
light, than when Captain CoUinson, whose labors to 
support and carry out this last search have been sig- 
nally serviceable, forwarded to me a telegram to be 
communicated to the British Association at Aberdeen 
announcing the success of M'Clintock. That docu- 
ment reached Balmoral on the 22nd of September 
last, when the men of science were invited thither 
by their Sovereign. Great was the satisfaction caused 
by the diffusion of these good tidings among my asso- 
ciates (the distinguished Arctic explorers Admiral Sir 
James Ross and General Sabine being present) ; and 
it was most cheering to us to know, that the Queen 
and our Royal President* took the deepest interest 

* At the Aberdeen mcctinj,' the Prince Consort thus spoke: — "The 
Aberdeen whaler braves the icy regions of the Pohar sea to seek and to 
battle with tlie great monster of the deep ; ho has materially assisted ia 
opening these icebound regions to t!ie rcscarciies of science ; lie fearlessly 
aided in the scarcli after Sir Jolm Franklin and his gallant companions 
whom their country sent forth on tliis mission ; but to whom Providence, 
alas! has denied the reward of their labors, the return to their homes, to 
the affectionate embrace of their families and friends, and the acknowl- 
edgments of a grateful nation." 



PREFACE. xix 

in this intelligence — such as, indeed, they have always 
evinced whenever the search for the missing navigators 
has been brought under their consideration. The im- 
mediate bestowal of the Arctic medal upon all the 
officers and men of the ' Fox ' is a pleasing proof that 
this interest is well sustained. 

But these few introductory sentences must not be 
extended ; and I invite the reader at once to peruse 
the Journal of M'Clintock, which will gratify every 
lover of truthful and ardent research, though it will 
leave him impressed with the sad belief, that the end 
of the companions of Franklin has been truly re- 
corded by the native Esquimaux, who saw these no- 
ble fellows " fall down and die as they walked along 
the ice." 

Looking to the fact, that little or no fresh food could 
have been obtained by the crews of the ' Erebus ' and 
' Terror ' during their long imprisonment of twenty 
months, in so frightfully sterile a region as that in 
which the ships were abandoned, — so sterile that it 
is even deserted by the Esquimaux, — and also to the 
want of sustenance in spring at the mouth of the Back 
River, all the Arctic naval authorities with whom I 
have conversed, coincide with M'Clintock and his as- 
sociates in the belief, that none of the missing navi- 
gators can be now living. 

Painful as is the realisation of this tragic event, let 
us now dwell only on the reflection that, while the 
North- West passage has been solved by the heroic 



XX PREFACE. 

self-sacrifice of Franklin, Crozier, Fitzjames, and their 
associates, the searches after them which are now ter- 
minated, have, at a very small loss of life, not only 
added prodigiously to geographical knowledge, but 
have, in times of peace, been the best school for test- 
ing, by the severest trials, the skill and endurance of 
many a brave seaman. In her hour of need — should 
need arise — England knows that such men will nobly 

do their duty. 

Roderick I, Murchison. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



Cause of delaj in equipment — Fittings of the 'Fox' — Volunteers for 
Arctic service — Assistance from public departments — Reflections 
upon the undertaking — Instructions and departure — Orkneys and 
Greenland — Fine Arctic scenery — Danish establishments in Green- 
land — Frederickshaah, in Davis' Straits, .... Page 1 

CHAPTER II. 

Fiskernaes and Esquimaux — The * Fox ' reaches Disco — Disco Fioi'd 

— Summer scenery — Waigat Strait — Coaling from the mine — Pur- 
chasing Esquimaux dogs — Heavy gale off Upernivik — Melville Bay 

— The middle ice — The great glacier of Greenland — Reindeer 
cross the glacier, 19 

CHAPTER III. 

Melville Bay — Beset in Melville Bay — Signs of winter — The coming 
storm — Drifting in the pack — Canine appetite — Resigned to a win- 
ter in the pack — Dinner stolen by sharks — The Arctic shark — 
White whales and killers, 35 

CHAPTER IV. 

Snow crystals — Dog will not eat raven — An Arctic school — The dogs 
invade us — Bear-hunting by night — Ice-artillery — Arctic palates — 
Sudden rise of temperature — Harvey's idea of a sortiC; . . 51 

CHAPTER V. 

Burial in tlie pack — Musk oxen in lat. 80° north — Thrift of the Arctic 
fox — The aurora affects the electrometer — An Arctic Christmas — 
Sufferings of an Arctic jiarty — Ice acted on by wind only — How 
the sun ought to be welcomed — Constant action of the ice — Return 
of the seals — Revolving storm, 67 

CHAPTER VI. 

A bear-fight — An ice-nip — Strong gales, rapid drift — The ' Fox ' 
breaks out of the pack — Hanging on to floe-edge — the Arctic bear — 
An ice tournament — The 'Fox' in peril — A storm in the pack — 
Escape from the pack, ........ 84 



xxii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VII. 

A holi(l:iy in Greenland — A lady blue with cold — The loves of Grccn- 
landers — Close shaving — Meet the whalers — Information of whal- 
ers — Disco — Danish hospitality — Sail from Disco — Kindness of 
the whalers — Danish establishments in Greenland, . ■ 100 

CHAPTER VIII. 

' Fox ' nearly wrecked — Afloat, and push ahead — Arctic Iiairbrcadth 
escapes — Nearly cau^'ht in the pack — Shooting little auks — Tho 
Arctic Ili-^hlandcrs — Cape York — Crimson snow — Stru;:gling to 
the westward — Reach the AVest-land — Ofl" the entrance of Lancaster 
Sound, 116 

CHAPTER IX. 

Off Cape "Warrendcr — Sight the wlialers again — Enter Pond's Bay — 
Communicate with Esquimaux — Ascend Pond's Inlet — Esqnimaiix 
information — Arctic summer abode — An Arctic village — No intel- 
ligence of Franklin's ships — Arctic trading — Geographical infor- 
mation of natives — Information of Rae's visit — Imj)rovidence of 
Esquimaux — Travels of Esquimaux, 132 

CHAPTER X. 

Leave Pond's Bay — A gale in Lancaster Sound — The Becchey Island 
Depot — An Arctic monnment — Reflections at Becchey Island — Pro- 
ceed up Barrow's Strait — Peel Sound — Port Leopold — Prince Regent's 
Inlet — Bellot Strait — Flood-tide from tlie west — Unsuccessful efforts — 
Fox's Hole — No water to the west — Precautionary measures — Fourth 
attempt to pass through, 153 

CHAPTER XI. 

Proceed westward in a boat — Cheerless state of the western sea — Strug- 
gles in Bellot Strait — Falcons, good Arctic Aire — The resources of 
Bootliia Felix — Future sledge travelling — Heavy gales — llobson's 
party start — Winter quarters — BcUot's Strait — Advanced depot es- 
tablished — Observatories — Intense cold — Autumn travellers — Nar- 
row escape, 174 

CHAPTER XII. 

Death of our engineer — Scarcity of game — The cold unusally trying — 
JoUj', under adverse circumstances — Petersen's information — ijeiurn 
of the sun of 1859 — Early spring sledge parties — Unusual severity of 
the winter — Severe harilships of early sledging — Tiie western shores 
of Bootliia — Meet the EscjuinKuix — Intelligence of Franklin's shijis — 
Return to the ' Fox ' — Allen Young returns, .... 192 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Dr. "Walker's sledge journey — Snow-blindness attacks Young's party — 
Departure of all slcdgc-jiartics — Equipment of sicdge-parties — Meet 
the same party of natives — Intelligence of the second ship — My de- 
pot robbed — Part company from Hobson — Matty Island — Deserted 
snow-huts — Native sledges — Land on King William's Land, iil7 



CONTENTS. xxiii 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Meet Esquimaux — News of Franklin's people — Frighten a solitary 
party — Reach the Great Eish River — On Montreal Island — Total ab- 
sence of all relics — Examine Ogle Peninsula — Discover askeleton — 
Vagueness of Esquimaux information — Cape Herschel — Cairn, 235 

CHAPTER XV. 

The cairn found empty — Discover Hobson's letter — Discovery of Cro- 
zier's record — The deserted boat — Articles discovered about the boat 
— The skeletons and relics — The boat belonged to the ' Erebus ' — Con- 
jectures, 253 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Errors in Franklin's records — Relics found at the cairn — Reflections on 
the retreat — Returning homeward — Geological remarks — Difficul- 
ties of summer sledging — Arrive on board the ' Fox ' — Navigable 
N.W. passage — Death from scurvy — Anxiety for Captain Young — 
Young returns safely, 272 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Signs of release — Dearth of animal life — Owl is good beef — Beat out 
of winter quarters — Our game-list — Reach Fury Beach — Escape from 
Regent's Inlet — In Baffin's Bay — Captain Allen Young's journey — 
Disco ; sad disappointment — Part from our Esquimaux friends — 
Adieu to Greenland — Arrive home, 292 

Conclusion, 375 



APPENDIX. 

No. I. — A Letter to Viscount Palmerston, K.G., &c., from Lady 
Franklin, 319 

No. II. — Memorial to the Right Hon. Viscount Palmerston, M.P., 
G.C.B., 329 

No. III. — List of Relics of the Franklin Expedition brought to 
England in the ' Fox ' by Captain M'Clintock, . . . 334 

No. IV. — Geological Account of the Arctic Archipelago, by Pro- 
fessor Haugliton, 341 

No. V. — List of Subscribers to the 'Fox' Expedition, . . 373 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



The 'Fox ' steaming out of the Rolling Pack. Drawn 

hy Captain May Frontispiece. 

Sketch Map of the Drift of the 'Fox' down BaflBn's 

Bay in the floating Ice To face pofje ix 

Sketch Map of Arctic Regions at the time of Franklin's 

Last Expedition — xii 

A Funeral on the Ice — the effect of Paraselcna (Mock 

Moons). Drawn hy Captain May — 68 

The Greenlander's Supper appi-opriated by a Bear. 

Ditto — 93 

The ' Fox 'on a Rock near Buchan Island. Ditto — 116 

Esquimaux imitating animals to induce Europeans to 

approach. From a Sketch by Captain Allen Young — 123 

The Village and Glacier of Kaparoktolik. Drawn by 

Captain May — 141 

The ' Fox ' arriving at Beechey Island. Ditto — 1 55 

M'Clintock in his Boat sailing through Bellot Strait. 

Ditto — 174 

A Dog Sledge or Scout Party — 182 

Interior of tlie Observatory- Ditto — 187 

Moonlight in tlic Arctic Regions. Ditto — 217 

M'Clintock's Travelling Party discovering the Remains 

of Cairn at Cape Herschel. Drawn by Captain 

May — 251 

Facsimile of the Record found of Franklin's Expedition. — 255 

Isolated Iceberg. Drawn by P. SIcel ton, from a SIcetch 

by Captain Allen Young — 279 

Walrusses — a Family Party. From a Sketch by Cap- 
tain Allen Young — 295 

Geological Map of the Arctic Regions — 341 

Cape Bunny, Peel Sound Page 346 

Map of the North- West Passage, by John Arrowsmith, 

F.R.G.S At the end. 

xxiv 



JOUKNAL OF THE SEARCH 



SIR JOHN FRANKLIN 



CHAPTEE I. 

Cause of delay in equipment — Fittings of the ' Fox ' — Volunteers for 
Arctic service — Assistance from public departments — Reflections 
upon the undertaking — Instructions and departure — Orkneys and 
Greenland — Fine Arctic scenery — Danish establishments in Green- 
land — Frcderickshaab, in Davis' Straits. 

It is now a matter of history how Government 
and private expeditions prosecuted, with unpre- 
cedented zeal and perseverance, the search for 
Sir John Frankhn's ships, between the years 
1847-55 ; and that the only ray of information 
gleaned was that afforded by the inscriptions 
upon three tombstones at Beechey Island, briefly 
recording the names and dates of the deaths of 
those individuals of the lost expedition, who thus 
early fell in the cause of science and of their 
country. 

In this manner were we made aware of the 
locality where the Franklin expedition passed its 
first Arctic winter. The traces assuring us of 
that fact, were discovered in August, 1850, by 



2 FORMER EXPEDITIONS. Chap. I. 

Captain Ommanney, RN., of H.M.S. * Assistance,* 
and by Captain Penny, of the ' Lady Franklin.* 

In October, 1854, Dr. Kae brought home the 
only additional information respecting them which 
has ever reached us. From the Esquimaux of 
Boothia Felix he learned that a party of about 
forty white men were met on the west coast of 
King William's Island, and from thence travelled 
on to the mouth of the Great Fish Kiver, where 
they all perished of starvation, and that this 
tragic event occurred apparently in the spring 
of 1850. 

Some relics obtained from these natives, and 
brought home by Dr. Rae, were proved to have 
belono:ed to Sir John Franldin and several of his 
associates. 

The Government caused an exploring party to 
descend the Fish River in 1855 ; but, although 
sufficient traces were found to prove that some por- 
tion of the crews of the ^ Erebus ' and ' Terror' had 
actually landed on the banks of that river, and 
traces existed of them up to Franklin Eapids, no 
additional information w^as obtained either from 
the discovery of records, or through the Esqui- 
maux. Mr. Anderson, the Hudson Bay Companj's 
officer in charge, and his small party, deserve 
credit for their perseverance and skill ; but they 
were not furnished with the necessary means of 
accomplishing their mission. Mr. Anderson could 
not obtain an interpreter, and the two frail bark 



Ape. 1857. CAUSE OF DELAY R? EQUIPMENT. 3 

canoes in which, his whole party embarked were 
almost worn out before they reached the locality 
to be searched. It is not surprising that such 
an expedition caused very considerable excite- 
ment at home. 

Lady Franklin, and the advocates for further 
search, now pressed upon government the neces- 
sity of following up, in a more effectual manner, 
the traces accidentally found by Dr. Rae, and, 
in fact, of rendering the search complete by one 
more eifort, involving but little of hazard or 
expense. It was not until April, 1857, that any 
decisive answer was given to Lady Franklin's 
appeal. (See Appendix No. 1.) 

Sir Charles Wood then stated " that the mem- 
bers of Her Majesty's Government, having come, 
with great regret, to the conclusion that there 
was no prospect of saving life, would not be justi- 
fied, for any objects which in their opinion could 
be obtained by an expedition to the Arctic seas, 
in exposing the lives of officers and men to the 
risk inseparable from such an enterprise." 

Lady Franklin, upon this final disappointment 
of her hopes, had no hesitation in immediately 
preparing to send out a searching expedition, 
equipped and stored at her own cost. But she 
was not left alone. Many friends of the cause 
— including^ some of the most distina-uished scien- 
tific men in England,* and especially Sir Roderick 

* A list of them and their subscriptions to be given in Appendix. 



4 N03kUNATI0N OF COMMANDER. Chap. I. 

Murchison, whose zeal was as practical as it was 
enlightened — hastened to tender their aid, and 
soon a very considerable sum was raised in fur- 
therance of so trul}^ noble an effort. 

On the 18th of April, 1857, Lady Franklin 
did me the honor to offer me the command of 
the proposed expedition ; it was of course most 
cheerfully accepted. As a post of honor and 
some difficulty, it possessed quite sufficient charms 
for a naval officer who had already served in 
three consecutive expeditions from 1848 to 1854. 
I was thoroughly conversant with all the details 
of this peculiar service ; and I confess, moreover, 
that my whole heart was in the cause. How 
could I do otherwise than devote myself to save 
at least the record of faithful service, even unto 
death, of my brother officers and seamen ? and, 
being one of those by whose united efforts not 
only the Franklin search, but the geography of 
Arctic America, has been brought so nearly to 
completion, I could not willingly resign to pos- 
terity, the honor of tilling up even the small 
remaining blank upon our maps. 

To leave these discoveries incomplete, more 
especially in a quarter through which the tidal 
stream actually demonstrates the existence of a 
channel — the only remaining hope of a prac- 
ticable north-west passage — would indeed be 
leaving strong inducement for future explorers to 
reap the rich reward of our long-continued exer- 
tions. 



Ai-K. 1857. PURCHASE OF THE 'FOX.' 5 

I immediately applied to the Admiralty for 
leave of absence to complete the Franklin search ; 
and on the 23d received at Dublin the telegraphic 
message from Lady Franklin: "Your leave is 
granted ; the ^ Fox ' is mine ; the refit will com- 
mence immediately." She had already purchased 
the screw-yacht 'Fox/ of 177 tons burthen, and 
now placed her, together with the necessary 
funds, at my disposal. 

Let me explain what is here implied by the 
simple word refit. The velvet hangings and 
splendid furniture of the yacht, and also every 
thing not constituting a part of the vessel's 
strengthening, were to be removed; the large 
skjT'-lights and capacious ladderways had to be 
reduced to limits more adapted to a polar clime ; 
the whole vessel to be externally sheathed with 
stout planking, and internally fortified by strong 
cross-beams, longitudinal beams, iron stanchions, 
and diagonal fastenings ; the false keel taken off, 
the slender brass propeller replaced by a mas- 
sive iron one, the boiler taken out, altered, and 
enlarged ; the sharp stem to be cased in iron 
until it resembled a ponderous chisel set up edge- 
ways ; even the yacht's rig had to be altered. 

She was placed in ^le hands of her builders, 
Messrs. Hall & Co., of Aberdeen, who displayed 
even more than their usual activity in effecting 
these necessary alterations, for it was determined 
that the ' Fox ' should sail by the 1st July. 



6 FITTINGS OF THE 'FOX.' Cii.vr. I- 

Internally she was fitted up with the strictest 
economy in every sense, and the officers were 
crammed into pigeon-holes, styled cabins, in order 
to make room for provisions and stores; our 
mess-room, for five persons, measured 8 feet 
square. The ordinary heating apparatus for win- 
ter use was dispensed with, and its place supplied 
by a few very small stoves. The ^ Fox ' had 
been the property of the late Sir Richard Sutton, 
Bart., who made but one trip to Norway in her, 
and she was purchased by Lady Franklin from 
his executors for 2000/. 

Havmg thus far commenced the refit of the 
vessel, I turned my attention to the selection of 
a crew and to the requisite clothing and pro- 
visions for our voyage. 

Many worthy old shipmates, my companions in 
the previous Arctic voyages, most readily volun- 
teered their services, and they were as cheerfully 
accepted, for it was my anxious wish to gather 
round me av ell-tried men, who -svere aware of the 
duties expected of them, and accustomed to naval 
discipline. Hence, out of the twenty-five souls 
composing our small company, seventeen had 
previously served in the Arctic search. 

Expeditions of this kind are always popular 
with seamen, and innumerable were the applica- 
tions sent to me ; but still more abundant were 
the offers to '■' serve in any capacity " which 
poured in from all parts of the country, from 



Apk. 1857. OFFICEES OF THE EXPEDITION. 7 

people of all classes, many of whom had never 
seen the sea. It was, of course, impossible to 
accede to any of these latter proposals, yet, for 
my own part, I could not but feel gratified at 
such convincing proofs that the spirit of the 
country was favorable to us, and that the ardent 
Jove of hardy enterprise still lives amongst Eng- 
lishmen, as of old, to be cherished, I trust, as 
the most valuable of our national characteristics 
— as that which has so largely contributed to 
make Eno;land what she is. 

My second in command was Lieutenant W. E. 
Hobson, E.N., an of&cer already distinguished in 
Arctic service. Captain Allen Young joined me 
as sailing-master, contributing not only his val- 
uable services but largely of his private funds 
to the expedition. This gentleman had pre- 
viously commanded some of our very finest mer- 
chant ships, the latest being the steam-transport 
' Adelaide ' of 2500 tons : he had but recently 
returned, in ill health, from the Black Sea, 
where he was most actively employed during 
the greater part of the Crimean campaign. 
Nothing that I could say would add to the 
merit of such singularly generous and disin- 
terested conduct. David Walker, M.D., volun- 
teered for the post of surgeon and naturalist ; 
he also undertook the photographic department; 
and just before sailing, Carl Petersen, now so 
well known to Arctic readers as the Esquimaux 



8 ASSISTANCE FROM PUBLIC DEPARTMENTS. Chap. L 

interpreter in the expeditions of Captain Penny 
and Dr. Kane, came to join me from Copen- 
hagen, although landed there from Greenland 
only six days previously, after an absence of a 
year from his family : we were indebted to Sir 
Roderick Murchison and the electric telegraph 
for securino: his valuable services. 

Like the Paris omnibuses we were at length 
tout complete and quite as anxious to make a start. 

Ample provisions for twenty-eight months were 
embarked, including preserved vegetables, lemon- 
juice, and pickles, for daily consumption, and pre- 
served meats for every third day : also as much 
of Messrs. Allsopp's stoutest ale as we could find 
room for. The Government, although declining 
to seud out an expedition, 3-ct now contributed 
liberally to our supplies. All our arms, powder, 
shot, powder for ice-blasting, rockets, maroons, 
and signal mortar, were furnished by the Board 
of Ordnance. The Admiralt}' caused GG82 lbs. of 
pemuiican to be prepared for our use. Not less 
than 85,000 lbs. of this invaluable food have been 
prepared since 1845 at the Eoyal Clarence Vict- 
ualing Yard, Gos2:)ort, for the use of the Arctic 
Expeditions. It is composed of prime beef cut 
into thin slices and dried over a wood fire ; then 
pounded up and mixed with about an equal weight 
of melted beef fat. The pemmican is then pressed 
into cases capable of containing 42 lbs. each. 
The Admiralty supplied us with all the requisite 



FIG 1. 




isr 



j^~~^<^- °'^- 






^ 




6KET( H MAP OF THE DRIFT OF THE ' POX ' DOWN BAFFIN'S HAT 1» 
THE Fl.OATI>0 ICK. 



Apk. 1857. DONATION FROM EOYAL SOCIETY. 9 

ice-gear, such as saws from ten to eighteen feet 
in length, ice-anchors, and ice-claws : also with 
our winter housing, medicines, pure lemon-juice, 
seamen's hbrarj, hydrographical instruments, 
charts, chronometers, and an ample supply of arc- 
tic clothing which had remained in store from 
former expeditions. The Board of Trade con- 
tributed a variety of meteorological and nautical 
instruments and journals ; and I found that I had 
but to ask of these departments for what was 
required, and if in store it was at once granted. 
I asked, however, only for such things as were 
indispensably necessary. 

The President and Council of the Eoyal So- 
ciety voted the sum of 60/. from their donation 
fund for the purchase of magnetic and other 
scientific instruments, in order that our antici- 
pated approach to so interesting a locality as the 
Magnetic Pole might not be altogether barren of 
results. 

Being desirous to retain for my vessel the 
privileges she formerly enjoyed as a yacht, my 
wishes were very promptly gratified ; in the first 
instance by the Eoyal Harwich Yacht Club, of 
which my officers and myself were enrolled as 
members — the Commodore, A. Arcedeckne, Esq., 
presenting my vessel with the handsome ensign 
and burgee of the Club ; and shortly afterwards 
by my being elected a member of the Royal 
Victoria Yacht Club for the period of my voyage. 



10 REFLECTIONS UPON THE UNDERTAKING. Chap. I. 

Lastly, upon the very day of sailinj^, I was pro- 
posed for the Pioyal Yacht Squadron, to wliich 
the yacht had previously helonged -when the 
property of Sh' Richard Stratton. 

Throughout the whole period required for our 
equipment, I constantly experienced the heartiest 
co-operation and earnest good will from all with 
whom my varied duties brought me in contact 
Deep sympathy with Lad}'' Franklin in her dis- 
tress, her self-devotion and sacrifice of fortune, 
and an earnest desire to extend succor to any 
chance survivors of the ill-fated expedition who 
might still exist, or at least, to ascertain their 
fate, and rescue from oblivion their heroic deeds, 
seemed the natural promptings of every honest 
Ena;lish heart. It is needless to add that this 
experience of public opinion confirmed my own 
impression that the glorious mission intrusted to 
me was in reality a great mdional dniij. I could 
not but feel that, if the fjio-antic and admirablv 
equipped national expeditions sent out on pre- 
cisely the same duty, and reflecting so much 
credit upon the Board of Admiralit}^, were ranked 
amonQ;st the noblest efforts in the cause of human- 
ity any nation ever engaged in, and that, if high 
honor was awarded to all composing those splen- 
did expeditions, surely the effort became still 
more remarkable and worthy of approbation when 
its means were limited to one little vessel, con- 
taining but twenty-five souls, equipped and pro- 



Apr. 1857. LADY FRANKLIN'S VISIT. H 

visioned (although efficiently, yet) in a manner 
more according with the limited resources of a 
private individual than with those of the public 
purse. The less the means, the more arduous I 
felt was the achievement. The greater the risk 
— for the 'Fox' was to be launched alone into 
those turbulent seas from which every other ves- 
sel had long since been withdrawn — the more 
glorious would be the success, the more honora- 
ble even the defeat, if again defeat awaits us. 

Upon the last day of June, Lady Franklin, 
accompanied by her niece Miss Sophia Cracroft, 
and Capt. Maguire, R. N., came on board to bid us 
farewell, for we purposed sailing in the evening. 
Seeing how deeply agitated she was on leaving 
the ship, I endeavored to repress the enthusiasm 
of my crew, but without avail ; it found vent in 
three prolonged, hearty cheers. The strong feel- 
ing which prompted them was truly sincere ; and 
this unbidden exhibition of it can hardly have 
gratified her for whom it was intended more than 
it did myself 

I must here insert the only written instructions 
I could prevail upon Lady Franklin to give me ; 
they were not read until the 'Fox ' was fairly in 
the Atlantic. 

Aberdeen, June 29, 1857. 
Mt dear Captain M'Clintock, 

You have kindly invited me to give you "Instruc- 
tions," but I cannot bring myself to feel that it would be right 



12 LADY FRANKLIN'S INSTRUCTIONS. Ciiai'. L 

in me in any wny (o influence your judgment in the conduct of 
your noble undertaking; and indeed 1 have no temptation to 
do so, since it appears to me that your views are almost iden- 
tical with those w'lieh I had independently formed before I had 
the advantage of being thoroughly possessed of yours. But 
had tliis been otherwise, I trust you would have found me 
ready to prove the implicit confidence I place in you by yield- 
ing my own views to your more enlightened judgment; know- 
ing too as I do that your whole heart also is in the cause, even 
as my own is. As to the objects of the expedition and their 
relative importance, I am sure you know that the re-cue of any 
possible survivor of the ' Erebus ' and ' Terror ' would be to 
me, as it would be to you, the noblest result of our efforts. 

To this object I wish every other to be subordinate ; and 
next to it in importance is the i^ecovery of the unspeakably 
precious documents of the expedition, public and private, and 
the personal relics of my dear husband and his companions. 

And lastly, I trust it may be in your power to confirm, 
directly or inferentially, the claims of my husband's expedition 
to the earliest discovery of the passage, which, if Dr. Rae's 
report be true (and the Government of our country has ac- 
cepted and rewarded it as such), these martyrs in a noble 
cause achieved at their last extremity, after five long years of 
labor and suffering, if not at an earlier period. 

I am sure you will do all that man can do for the attainment 
of all these objects ; my only fear is that you may spend ycur- 
selves too much in the effort ; and you must therefore let me 
tell you how much dearer to me even than any of them is the 
preservation of the valuable lives of the little band of heroes 
:who are your companions and followers. 

May God in his great mercy preserve you all from hai in 
amidst the labors and jierils which await you, and restore you 
to us in health and safety as well as honor ! As to the honor I 
can have no misgiving. It will be yours as much if you fail 
(since you may fail in spite of every effort) as if you succeed ; 
and be assured that, under any and all circumstances w/ialcver. 



MS. 2. 




SKETCH MAP OF AKCTIO BKOIOKS AT THE TIME OF PKAhKLISS LA8T EXPEDIMON. 



July, 1857. ORKNEYS AND GEEENLAND. 13 ; 

such is my unbounded confidence in you, you will ever possess 
and be entitled to the enduring gratitude of your sincere and 
attached friend, 

Jane Franklin. 

We were not destined to get to sea that even- 
ing. The ' Fox/ hitherto during her brief career, 
accustomed only to the restraint imposed upon a 
gilded pet in summer seas, seemed to have got an 
inkling that her duty henceforth was to combat 
with difficulties, and, entering fully into the spirit 
of the cruise, answered her helm so much more 
readily than the pilot expected that she ran 
aground upon the bar. She was promptly shored 
up, and remained in that position until next 
morning, when she floated off unhurt at high 
water, and commenced her long and lonely 
voyage. 

Scarcely had we left the busy world behind 
us when we were actively engaged in making 
arrangements for present comfort and future 
exertion. How busy, how happy, and how full 
of hope we all were then ! 

On the night of the 2d of July we passed 
through the Pentland Firth, where the tide rush- 
ing impetuously against a strong wind raised up 
a tremendous sea, amid which the little vessel 
struggled bravely under steam and canvas. The 
bleak wild shores of Orkney, the still wilder 
pilot's crew, and their hoarse screams and unin- 
telligible dialect, the shrill cry of innumerable 
2 



14 GREE^^LAND. Chap. I. 

sea-bird?, the howling breeze and angry sea, made 
us feel as if we had suddenly awoke in Green- 
land itself. The southern extremity of that ice- 
locked continent became visible on the 12th. It 
is quaintly named Cape Farewell ; but whether 
by some sanguine outward-bound adventurer who 
fancied that in leaving Greenland behind him he 
had already secured his passage to Cathay ; or 
whether by the wearied homesick mariner, feebly 
escaping from the grasf) of winter in his shattered 
bark, and firmly purposing to bid a long farewell 
to this cheerless land, history altogether fails to 
enlighten us. 

From January until July this coast is usually 
rendered unapproachable by a broad margin of 
heavy ice, which drifts there from the vicinity of 
Spitzbergen, and, lapping round the Cape, extends 
alonsfshore to the northward about as far as Baal's 
River, a. distance of 250 miles. Although it effect- 
ually blockades the ports of South Greenland for 
the greater part of the summer, and is justly- 
dreaded by the captains of the Greenland traders, 
it confers important benefits upon the Green- 
lander by bearing to his shores immense numbers 
of seals and many bears. The same current 
which conveys hither all this ice is also freighted 
with a scarcely less valuable supply of driftwood 
from the Siberian rivers. 

About this time, one of my crew showing 
symptoms of diseased lungs, I determined to 



JuLT, 1857. SPITZBERGEN ICE. Ig, 

embrace tlie earliest opportunity of sending him 
home out of a climate so fatal to those who are 
thus affected ; and having learnt from Mr. Peter- 
sen, who had quitted Greenland only in April 
last, that a vessel would very soon leave Freder- 
ickshaab for Copenhagen, I resolved to go to 
that place in order to catch this homeward-bound 
ship. 

It was necessary to push through the Spitzber- 
gen ice, and we fortunately succeeded in doing so 
after eia;hteen hours of buffetino; with this formi- 
dable enemy ; at first we found it tolerably loose, 
and the wind being strong and favorable, we 
thumped along pleasantly enough ; but as we ad- 
vanced, the ice became much more closely packed, 
a thick fog came on, and many hard knocks were 
exchanged; at length our steam carried us 
through into the broad belt of clear water be- 
tween the ice and land, which Petersen assures 
me always exists here at this season. 

The dense fog now prevented further progress, 
and as evening closed in I gave up all hope of 
improvement for the night, when suddenly the 
fog rolled back upon the land, disclosing some 
islets close to us, then the rugged points of main- 
land, and at length, lifting altogether, the distant 
snowy mountain-peaks against a deep blue sky. 

The evening became bright and delightful; 
the whole extent of coast was fringed with innu- 
merable islets, backed by lofty mountains, and. 



16 FINE ^UlCTIC SCENERY. Cdap. I. 

being richly tinted by a glorious -svesteni sun, 
formed an unusually splendid sight. Greenland 
unveiled to our anxious gaze that memorable 
evening, all the magnificence of her natural 
beauty. Was it to welcome us that she thus cast 
off her dingy outer mantle, and shone forth 
radiant with smiles ? — such winning smiles ! 

A faint streak of mist, which we could not 
account for, appeared to float across a low, wide 
interval in the mountain range ; the telescope 
revealed its true character, — it was a portion of 
the distant glacier. We found ourselves upon the 
Tallard Bank, 30 miles north of our port, having 
been rapidly carried northwards by the Spitzbcr- 
gen current. 

July 2Wi. — This morning the chief trader of 
the settlement, or, as he is more usually styled by 
the English, the Governor, came off to us, and his 
pilot soon conducted us into the safe little harbor 
of Frederickshaab. I was much gratified to learn 
that we were just in time to secure a passage 
home for our ailing shipmate. 

For trading purposes Greenland is monopolized 
by the Danish government ; its Esquimaux and 
m.ixed population amount to about 7000 souls. 
About 1000 Danes reside constantly there for the 
jDurpose of conducting the trade, -which consists 
almost exclusivelj'' in the exchange of European 
goods for oil and the sldns of seals, reindeer, and 
a few other animals. 



Jolt, 1857. DAjN'ISH ESTABLISHMENTS, GEEENLAND. 17 

The Esquimaux are not subject to Danish laws, 
but although proud of their nomina,! independence 
they are sincerely attached to the Danes, and 
with abundant reason ; a Lutheran clergyman, a 
doctor, and a schoolmaster, whose duty it is to 
give gratuitous instruction and relief, are paid by 
the Government, and attached to each district; 
and when these improvident people are in dis- 
tress, which not unfrequently hajDpens during the 
long winters, provisions are issued to them free 
of cost; spirits are strictly prohibited. All of 
them have become Christians, and many can read 
and write. 

Have we English done more, or as much, for 
the aborigines in any of our numerous colonies, 
and especially for the Esquimaux within our own 
territories of Labrador and Hudson's Bay ? 

Greenland is divided into two inspectorates, 
the northern and southern ; the inspector of the 
latter division, Dr. Rink, had arrived at Freder- 
ickshaab upon his summer round of visits only 
the day previous to ourselves. He came on board 
to call upon me, and after Divine service I landed, 
and enjoyed a ramble with him over the moss- 
clad hills. Our first meeting was in North Green- 
land, in 1848; we had not seen one another since, 
so we had much to talk about. Dr. Rink is a gen- 
tleman of acknowledged talent, a distinguished 
traveller, and is thoroughly conversant with the 
sciences of geology and botany. 

2* B 



18 FREDERICKSIIAAB, DAVIS' STRAITS. Cii.vr;.!. 

Unfortunately for me his excellent work on 
Greenland has not l)een translated into Engli.xh. 

AYe were kindly permitted to purchase eight 
tons of coals, and such small things as were re- 
quired ; the only fresh supplies to be ol>tained 
besides codfish, which was abundant, consisted of 
a very few ptarmigan and hares, and a couple of 
kids ; these last are scarce. Some goats exist, 
but for eight months out of the year they are 
shut up in a house, and even now — in midsum- 
mer, — are only let out in the daytime. "We also 
purchased of the Esquimaux some specimens of 
Esquimaux workmanship, such as models of the 
native dresses, kayaks, etc., also birds' skins and 
eggs. I saw fine specimens of a white swan, and 
of a bird said to be extremely rare in Greenland, 
— it was a species of grebe, Podiccps cmiaUis, I 
imagine. Frederickshaab is just now well sup- 
plied with wood : besides an unseaworthy brig, 
the wreck of a large timber-ship lay on the 
beach, and an abandoned timber-vessel, which was 
met with between Iceland and Greenland in July 
by Prince Napoleon, drifted upon the coast 30 
miles to the northward in the following SejDtem- 
ber. 



July, 1857. LICHTENEELS. 19 



CHAPTEE II. 

Fiskernaes and Esquimaux — The ' Fox ' reaches Disco — Disco Fiord 

— Summer scenery — Waigat Strait — Coaling from the mine — Pur- 
chasing Esquimaux dogs — Heavy gale off Upernivik — Melville Bay 

— The middle ice — The great glacier of Greenland — Reindeer 
cross the glacier. 

23rJ July. — Sailed the day before yesterday for 
Godhaab. The fog was thick, and wind strong 
and contrary, but the current being favorable we 
found ourselves off the small out>station of Fisk- 
ernaes, when early this morning our fore topmast 
was carried away ; this accident induced me to 
run in and anchor for the purpose of repairing 
the damage. 

After passing within the outer islets, the Mora- 
vian settlement of Lichtenfels came in view upon 
the right hand; it consists of a large, sombre- 
looking wooden house, over which is a belfry, a 
smaller wooden house, and about a dozen native 
huts, roofed with sods, and scarcely distinguish- 
able from the ground they stand on, even at 
a very short distance. The land immediately 
behind is a barren rocky steep, now just suffi- 
ciently denuded of snow to look desolate in the 
extreme. A strong tide was setting out of the 
fiord, as we approached, and anchored in the 



20 nSKERNAES, Chai-. II. 

rocky little cove of Fiskernaes ; here we were 
not only sheltered from the wind, but the steep 
dark rocks within a ship's length on each side of 
lis, reflected a strong heat, whilst large mosquitoes 
lost no time in paying us their annoying visits. 
This remote spot has been visited by the Arctic 
voyagers, Captain Ingleficld, R.N., and Dr. Kane, 
U.S.N., and still more recently by Prince Napo- 
leon. Dr. Kane's account of his visit is full and 
very interestino:. Cod-fishina; was now in fidl 
activity, and the few men not so employed had 
gone up the fiord to hunt reindeer. 

The solitary dwelling-house belongs, of course, 
to the chief trader, and is a model of cleanliness 
and order; built of wood, it exhibits all the 
resources of the painter's art ; the exterior is a 
dull red, the window-frames are Avhite, floors yel- 
low, wooden partitions and low ceilings pale blue. 
The lady of the house had resided here for about 
eight years, and appeared to us to be, and ac- 
knowledged she was, heartily tired of the solitude. 
She gave me coffee, and some seeds for cultiva- 
tion at our winter quarters; these were lettuce, 
spinach, turnips, carraway and peas, the latter 
being the common kind used on board ship ; 
usually they have only produced leaves on this 
spot, but once the young peas grew large enough 
for the table. I expressed a wish to see the inte- 
rior of an Esquimaux tent. Peterson pulled aside 
the thin membrane of some animal, which hung 



July, 1857. AND ESQUIMAUX. 21 

across the doorwajj and served to exclude the 
wind, but admitted light, for, although past mid- 
night, the sun was up. Some seven or eight 
individuals lay within, closely packed upon the 
ground ; the heads of old and young, males and 
females, being just visible above the common 
covering. Going to bed here, only means lying 
down with your clothes on, upon a reindeer skin, 
wherever you can find room, and pulling another 
fur-robe over you. 

Fiskernaes appeared to be a sunny little nook, 
yet all the people we saw there were suffering 
from colds and coughs, and many deaths had 
occurred during the spring. The boys brought 
us handfuls of rough garnets, some of them as 
large as walnuts, receiving with evident satisfac- 
tion biscuits in exchano;e. 

By next morning we were able to put to sea, 
and early on the day following arrived off the 
large settlement of Godhaad ; it is in the " Gil- 
bert Sound " of Davis, and appears in many old 
charts as Baal's River. Almost adjoining God- 
haab is the Moravian settlement of New Herrnhut. 
Here it was that Hans Egede, the missionary 
father of Greenland, established himself in 1721, 
and thus re-opened the communication between 
Europe and Greenland, which had ceased upon 
the extinction of its early Scandinavian settlers, 
in the 14th century. 

A few years after Egede's successful beginning, 



22 MORAVIAN MISSIONS. JiiAi-. IL 

the Moravian mission still existing under the 
name of New Ilerrnhut was established. At 
present the Moravians support four missions in 
Greenland ; they are not subject to the Danish 
authorities, but are not permitted in any way to 
trade. 

As we were about to enter the harbor, the 
Danish vessel — the sole object of our visit — 
came out, so not a moment was lost in sending 
on board our invalid and our letter-bag, and in 
landing our coasting pilot. This man had brought 
us up from Frederickshaab for the very moderate 
sum of three pounds ; he was an Esquimaux, and, 
as the brother of poor Hans, Dr. Kane's unhappy 
door-driver, was received with favor amonirst us, 
and soon won our esteem by his quiet, obliging 
disposition, as also by his ability in the discharge 
of his duty ; he was so keensighted, and so vigi- 
lant, it was quite a comfort to have him on board 
during the foggy weather, for he could recognise, 
on the instant, every rock or point, even when 
dimly looming through the mist. We were not 
long in discovering that his absence was a loss to 
us. 

When passing out to the north of the Kookor- 
nen Islands, the wind suddenly failed, and at tlie 
same time a swell from to seaward reached us ; 
we therefore had considerable difficulty in towing 
the ship clear of the rocks ; for nearly half an 
hour our p-^sition was most critical. 



July, 1857. THE 'EOX' BEACHES DISCO. 23 

July Z\st. — ^Anchored at Godhaven (or Lievely), 
in Disco, for a few hours. I presented a letter 
from the Directors of the Royal Greenland Com- 
merce to the Inspector of North Greenland, Mr. 
Olrik, authorising him to furnish us with any 
needful supplies. Our only wants were sledge- 
doars and a native to manao;e them. We soon 
obtained ten of the former, but were advised to 
go into Disco Fiord, where many of the Esqui- 
maux were busy in taking and drying salmon- 
trout, and where some would most probably be 
obtained. 

I was much pleased with Mr. Olrik's kind recep- 
tion of me, and soon found him to be not only 
agreeable but well informed ; born in Greenland, 
of Danish parents, he is thoroughly conversant 
with the language and habits of the Esquimaux, 
and has devoted much of his leisure time in col- 
lecting rare specimens of the animal, vegetable, 
and mineral productions of the country. I came 
away enriched by some fossils from the fossil 
forest of Atanekerdluk, also with specimens of 
native coal. 

It was here I met with the late commanders 
of the whalers ^ Gipsy' and 'Undaunted,' of 
Peterhead, which had been crushed by the ice 
in Melville Bay, five or six weeks previously; 
all the other whalers had returned from the 
north, along the pack edge, and passed south of 
Disco. They said that the ice in Melville Bay 



24 DISCO Fl mo. Chap. II. 

was all broken up, and that they thought wo 
should find but little difficulty at thi.s late period 
in passing through it into the North Water. 

Leaving Godhaven in the afternoon with a 
native pilot, we found ourselves some 10 or 12 
miles up Disco Fiord at an early hour next mom- 
ing. After despatching the pilot to announce 
our arrival to his countiymen at their fishing 
station, 7 or 8 miles further up, the Doctor and I 
landed upon the north side to explore. 

The scenery is charming, lofty hills of trap 
rock, with unusually rich slopes (for the 70th 
parallel) descending to the fiord, and strewed 
with boulders of gneiss and granite. We found 
the blue campanula holding a conspicuous place 
amonrvst the wild flowers. I do not know a more 
enticing spot in Greenland for a week's shooting, 
fishing, and yachting than Disco Fiord ; hares 
and ptarmigan may be fovmd along the bases of 
the hills; ducks are most abundant upon the 
fiord, and delicious salmon-trout very plentiful 
in the rivers. Formerly Disco was famed for 
the large size and abundance of its reindeer ; but 
for some unexplained reason they now confine 
themselves to the mainland. 

At this season the natives of Godhaab resort 
here and enjoy the trout fishery, — it is truly 
their season of harvest: the weather is pleasant, 
food delicious and abundant, and the labor an 
agreeable pastime. 



Aug. 1857. CHRISTIAN, THE DOG-DRIVER. 25 

Some kayaks soon came off to the ship, bring- 
ing salmon-trout, both fresh and smoked. 

A young Esquimaux, named Christian, volun- 
teered his services as our dog-driver, and was 
accepted ; he is about 23 years of age, unmar- 
ried, and an orphan. The men soon thoroughly 
washed and cropped him : soap and scissors being 
novelties to an Esquimaux: they then rigged 
him in sailor's clothes ; he was evidently not at 
home in them, but was not the less proud of his 
improved appearance, as reflected in the admir- 
ing glances of his countrymen. 

We now hastened away to the Waigat Strait to 
complete our coals. When passing Godhaven, 
the pilot was launched off our deck in his little 
kayalv without stopping the ship ! As a kayak is 
usually about 18 feet long, 8 inches deep, and 
only 16 or 17 inches wide, it requires great 
expertness to perform such a feat without the 
addition of a capsize. 

i:th August. — Entered the Waigat yesterday 
morning, slowly steaming through a sea of glass. 
Its surface was only rippled by the myriads of 
eider-ducks which extended over it for several 
miles : most of them were immature in plumage, 
and were probably the birds of last year. 

After runnino; about 24 miles, towards eveninor 

we approached a low range of sandstone cliffs on 

the Disco shore, in which horizontal seams of coal 

were seen. Here we anchored, and immediately 

3 



26 COALING — WAIGAT SCENERY. Ceap. II. 

commenced coaling. It was fortunate we did po, 
for soon it began to blow hard ; and ere noon 
to-day we were obliged, for the safety of the ship, 
to leave onr exposed anchorage, having howtver 
secured eight or nine tons of tolerable coal. For- 
merly these coal-seams were worked for the sup- 
ply of the neighboring settlements, but for several 
years past it has been found more profitable and 
convenient to send out coals from Denmark, and 
thus permit the natives to devote their whole 
time to the seal-fishery. 

The Waigat scenery is unusually grand ; the 
strait varies from 3 to 5 leagues in width ; on 
each side are mountains of 3000 feet in height. 
The Disco side, upon which we landed, is com- 
posed of trap, sandstone appearing only at the 
beach, and occasionally rising in cliffs to about 
100 feet. Upon the moss-clad slopes many frag- 
ments of quartz and zeolite were met with. The 
north end of Disco is almost a precipice to its 
snow-capped summit, which is 4000 feet high. 

^th. — A pleasant faur wind carries us rapidly 
northward, passing many icebergs. Our rigging 
is richly garnished with split codfish, which we 
hoped would dr}^ and keep ; but a warm day in 
Disco Fiord, and much rain with a southerly gale 
in the Waigat, have destroyed it for our own 
use. It is however still valuable as food for our 
dogs, I am very anxious to complete my stock of 
these Qur native auxiliaries, as without them we 



Aug. 1857. PURCHASING ESQUIMAUX DOGS. 27 

cannot hope to explore all the lands which it is 
the object of our voyage to search. We could 
only obtain ten at Godhaven, and require twenty 
more. 

Wi. — By Petersen's intimate knowledge of the 
coast we were enabled to run close in to the little 
settlement of Proven during the night, and obtain 
a few dogs and dogs' food. This morning we 
reached the extreme station of Upernivik, the 
last trace of civilization we shall meet with for 
some time. It is in lat. 72f N. Here Petersen re- 
sided for twelve of the eighteen years he has spent 
in Greenland, and his unlooked-for re-appearance 
astonished and delighted the small communit}^, 
more especially Governor Fliescher and his house- 
hold, who received us with a most hearty wel- 
come. 

^th. — Yesterday, when we hove to off Uper- 
nivik, the weather was very bad and rapidly 
growing worse, therefore our stay was limited to a 
couple of hours. The last letters for home were 
landed, fourteen dogs and a quantity of seal's 
flesh for them embarked, and the ship's head was 
turned seaward. 

It was then blowing a southerly gale, witli 
overcast murky sky, and a heavy sea running. 
When four miles outside the outer island, break- 
ers were suddenly discovered ahead, only just in 
time to avoid the ledge of sunken rocks upon 
which the sea was beating most violently. Many 



28 HEAVY GALE OFF UPERNIVIK. Chap. II. 

such rocks lie at consideral^le distances beyond 
the islands which border this coast, and greatly 
add to the danif-ers of its navio:ation. Beinfj; now 
fairly at sea, and the ship under easy sail for 
the night, I went early to bed in the hcpe of 
sleeping. I had been up all the previous night, 
naturally anxious about the ship threading her 
way through so many dangers, uncertain about 
being able to complete the number of our sledge- 
dogs, and much occupied in closing my corre- 
spondence, to which there would be an end for 
at least a year. All this over, the uncertain 
future loomed ominously before me. The great 
responsibilities I had undertaken seemed now 
and at once to fall with all their weight upon 
me. A mental whirlpool was the consequence, 
which, backed by the material storm, and the 
howling of the w^retched dogs in concert on 
deck, together with the tumbling about of every 
thing below, long kept sleep in abeyance. 

One thought and feeling predominated : it 
was gratitude, deep and humble, for the success 
■which had hitherto attended us, and for some 
narrow escapes which I must ever regard as 
Providential. 

Yesterday's gale has given place to calm foggy 
weather. An occasional iceberg is seen. The 
officers amuse themselves in trying new guns, 
and shooting sea-birds for our dogs. 

Governor Fliescher told me yesterday that for 



Aug. 1857. PASSAGE THROUGH BAFFIN'S BAY. 29 

the last four weeks southerly winds prevailed, 
and that only a fortnight ago his boat was unable 
to reach the Loom. Cliffs at Cape Shackleton, 50 
miles north of Upernivik, in consequence of the 
ice being pressed in against the land. I fear 
these same winds have closed together the ice 
which occupies the middle of Davis' Strait (hence 
called the middle ice), so that we shall not be 
able to penetrate it. However, we are standing 
out to make the attempt. 

To the uninitiated it may be as well to observe 
that each winter the sea called Baffin's Bay 
freezes over; in spring this vast body of ice 
breaks up, and drifting southward in a mass — 
called the main-pack, or the middle ice — ob- 
structs the passage across from east to west. 

The " North Passage " is made by sailing round 
the north end of this pack ; the " Middle Passage," 
by pushing through it ; and the " Southern Pas- 
sage," by passing round its southern extreme; 
but seasons do occur when none of these routes 
are practicable. 

It is very remarkable that southward of Disco 
northerly winds have prevailed. They greatly 
impeded our progress up Davis' Strait, but we 
cheered ourselves with the hope that they would 
effectually clear a path for us across the northern 
part of Baffin's Bay. 

Wi — Last night we reached the edge of the 
middle ice, about 70 miles to the west of Uper- 
3* 



80 MELVILLE BAY. Chap. n. 

nivik, and ran southward along its edge all night 
This morning, in thick fog, the ship was caught 
in its margin of loose ice. The fog soon after 
cleared off, and we saw the clear sea about two 
miles to the eastward, whilst all to the west was 
impenetrable closely-packed floe-pieces. After 
steaming out of our predicament (a matter which 
we could not accomplish under sail) ^yQ ran on to 
the southward until evening, but found the pack 
edge still composed of light ice very closely 
pressed together. 

Having now closely examined it for an extent 
of 40 miles, I was satisfied that w^e could not force 
a j^assage through it across Baffin's Ba}^, as is 
frequently done in ordinary seasons; therefore, 
taking advantage of a fair wind, we steered to 
the northward, in order to seek an opening in 
that direction. 

12th. — We are in Melville Bay ; made fast this 
afternoon to an iceberg, which lies aground in 
58 fathoms water, about 2 miles from Browne's 
Islands, and between them and the great glacier 
which here takes the place of the coast-line. 

We have got thus far without any difficulty, 
sailing along the edge of the middle ice; but 
here we find it pressing in against Browne's Isl- 
ands, and covering the whole bay to the north- 
ward, quite in the steep face of the glacier. This 
is evidently the result of long-continued south- 
erly winds ; but as the ice is very much broken 



Aug. 1857. THE MIDDLE ICE. 31 

up, we may expect it to move off rapidly be- 
fore the autumnal northerly winds now due, and 
these winds invariably remove the previous sea- 
son's ice. All that we know of Melville Bay 
navigation in August, is derived from the expe- 
rience of Government and private searching ex- 
peditions during eight or nine seasons. My own 
three previous transits across it were made in 
this month. The whalers either get through in 
June or July, or give up the attempt as being 
too late for their fishing. It frequently happens 
that they get round the south end of the middle 
ice, between latitudes 66° and 69° N., and up 
the west coast of Baffin's Bay late in the season ; 
but we have no accounts of these voyages, nor 
should I be justified, at this late period of the 
season, in abandoning the prospect before me, in 
order to attempt a route which, even if success- 
ful, w^ould lengthen our voyage to Barrow Strait 
by 700 or 800 miles. We have already passed 
what is usually the most difficult and dangerous 
part of the Melville Bay transit. 

There is much to excite intense admiration 
and wonder around us ; one cannot at once appre- 
ciate the grandeur of this mighty glacier, extend- 
ing unbroken for 40 or 50 miles. Its sea-cliffs, 
about 5 or 6 miles from us, appear comparatively 
low, yet the icebergs detached from it are of 
the loftiest description. Here, on the spot, it 
does not seem incorrect to compare the icebergs 



32 GliEAT GLACIER OF GREE^'LA^'D. Cuap. II. 

to mere chippings off its edge, and the floe-ice to 
the thhmest .shavings. 

The far-off outhne of glacier, seen against the 
eastern sky, has a faint tinge of j^ellow; it is 
almost horizontal, and of unknown distance and 
elevation. 

There is an unusual dearth of hirds and seals ; 
everything around us is painfully still, excepting 
when an occasional iceberg splits off from the 
parent glacier ; then we hear a rumbling crash 
like distant thunder, and the wave occasioned 
by the launch reaches us in six or seven minutes, 
and makes the ship roll lazily for a similar period. 
I cannot imagine that within the whole compass 
of nature's varied aspects, there is presented to 
the human eye a scene so well adapted for pro- 
moting deep and serious reflection, for lifting the 
thoughts from trivial things of every day life to 
others of the highest import. 

The glacier serves to remind one at once of 
Time and of Eternity — of time, since we see 
portions of it break off to drift and melt away ; 
and of eternity, since its down^^'ard march is so 
extremely slow, and its augmentations behind so 
regular, that no change in its appearance is per- 
ceptible from age to age. If even the untaught 
savages of luxuriant tropical regions regard the 
earth merelj^ as a temporar}^ abode, surel}' all 
who gaze upon this ice-overwhelmed region, this 
wide expanse of "terrestrial wreck," must be 



Aug 1857. GI^'^'*-'^ GLACIER OF GREENLAND. 33 

similarly assured that here "we have no abid- 
ing place." 

During daytime the strong glare is very dis- 
tressing, hence the subdued light of midnight, 
when the sun just skims along the northern 
horizon, is much the most agreeable part of the 
twenty-four hours; the temperature varies be- 
tween 30° and 40° of Fahrenheit. 

The drift-ice of various descriptions about us 
is constantly in motion under the influence of 
mysterious surface and under currents (according 
to their relative depths of floatation), which whirl 
them about in every possible direction. 

To the S.E. are two small islands, almost envel- 
oped in the glacier, and far within it an occasional 
mountain-peak protrudes from beneath. 

From observing closely the variations in the 
glacier surface, I think we may safely infer that 
where it lies unbroken and smooth, the support- 
ing land is level ; and where much crevassed, the 
land beneath is imeven. The crevassed parts are 
of course impassable, but, by following the wind- 
ings of the smooth surface, I think the interior 
could be reached. Some attempts to cross the 
glacier in South Greenland have failed, yet, by 
studying its character and attending to this 
remark, I think places might be found where 
an attempt would succeed. Mr. Petersen tells 
me that the Esquimaux of Upernivik are iinable 

to account for occasional disappearances and re- 

c 



34 REINDEER CROSS THE GLACIER. Chap. U. 

appearances of immense herds of reindeer, except 
by assuming that they migrate at intervals to 
feeding-grounds beyond the glacier, the surface 
of which he also says is smooth enough in many 
places even for dog-sledges to travel upon. As 
there is much uninhabited land, both to the 
northward and southward of Upernivik, I do not 
see the necessity for this supposition. The habits 
of the Esquimaux confine them almost exclu- 
sively to the islands and sea-coasts. 



Aug. 1857. MELVILLE BAY. 35 



CHAPTER III. 

Melville Bay — Beset in Melville Bay — Signs of Winter — The coming 
storm — Drifting in the pack — Canine appetite — Eesigned to a winter 
in the pack — Dinner stolen by sharks — The Arctic shark — White 
Whales and Killers. 

Ihth August. — Three days of the most perfect 
calm have sadly taxed our patience. Lovely 
bright weather, but scarcely a living creature 
seen. This afternoon the anxiously-looked-for 
north wind sprang up, and immediately the light 
ice began to drift away before it, but it is not 
strong enough to influence the icebergs, and they 
greatly retard the clearing-out of the bay. We 
have noticed a constant wind ofi' the glacier, 
probably the result of its cooling effect upon the 
atmosphere ; this wind does not extend more than 
3 or 4 miles out from it. 

l^th. — One of the loveliest mornings imagin- 
able : the icebergs sparkled in the sun, and the 
breeze was just sufficiently strong to ripple the 
patches of dark blue sea ; beyond this, there was 
nothing to cheer bne in the prospect from the 
Crow's-nest at four o'clock ; but little change had 
taken place in the ice; I therefore determined 
to run back along the pack-edge to the south- 
westward, in the hope that some favorable change 



S6 MELVILLE BAY. 



CuAp. HI. 



might have taken place further off shore. The 
barometer was imusually low, yet no indication 
of any change of weather. A seaman's chest was 
picked up ; it contained onl}'' a spoon, a fork, and 
some tin canisters, and probably drifted here from 
the southward, where the two whale-ships were 
crushed in June, affording another proof of the 
prevalence of southerly winds. As we steamed 
on, the ice was found to have opened consider- 
ably ; it fell calm, and mist was observed rolling 
along the glacier from the southward. By noon 
a S.E. wind reached us ; all sail was set, the leads 
or lanes of water became wider, and our hopes of 
speedily crossing Melville Bay rose in proportion 
as our speed increased. We are f)ursuing our 
course without let or hindrance. 

17//^. — The fog overtook us yesterday evening, 
and at length, unable to see our way, we made 
fast at eleven o'clock to the ice. The wind had 
freshened, it was evidently blowing a gale outside 
the ice. During the night we drifted rapidl}' 
together with the ice, and this morning, on the 
clearing off of the fog, we steamed and sailed on 
again, threading our way between the floes, which 
'are larger and much covered with drij snow. 
This evening we again made last, the floes having 
closed together, cutting off advance and retreat. 
A wintry night, much wind and snow. 

\Wi. — Continued strong S.E. winds, pressing 
the ico closely together, dark sky and snow; 



Aug. 1857. MELVILLE BAY. 37 

everytW^g wears a wintry and threatening as- 
j3Poi:; we are closely hemmed in, and have our 
rudder and screw unshipped. This recommence- 
m.ent of S.E. winds and rapid ebbing of the 
small remaining portion of summer makes me 
more anxious about the future than the present. 
Yesterday the weather improved, and by working 
for thirteen hours we got the ship out of her 
small ice-creek into a larger space of water, and 
in so doing advanced a mile and a half It is 
now calm, but the ice still drifts, as we would 
wish it, to the N.W. Yesterday we were within 
12 miles of the position of the ^ Enterprise ' upon 
the same day in 1848, and under very similar 
conditions of weather and ice also. 

2Wi. — No favorable ice-drift : this detention 
has become most painful. The ^Enterprise' 
reached the open water upon this day in 1848, 
within 50 miles of our present position ; unfor- 
tunately, our prospects are not so cheering. 
There is no relative motion in the floes of ice, 
except a gradual closing together, the small 
spaces and streaks of water being still further 
diminished. The temperature has fallen, and is 
usually below the freezing-point. I feel most 
keenly the difficulty of my position ; we cannot 
aflford to lose many more days. Of all the 
voyages to Barrow Strait, there are but two 
which were delayed beyond this date, viz.. Par- 
ry's in 1824, and the ^ Prince Albert's ' in 1851. 
4 



38 BESET IN MELVILLE BAY. Chap. HI 

Should we not be released, and therefoi^ be com- 
pelled to winter in this pack, notwithstanding all 
our efforts, I shall repeat the trial next jear, and 
in the end, with God's aid, perfomi my sacred 
duty. 

The men enjoy a game of rounders on the ice 
each evenmg; Petersen and Christian are con- 
stantly on the look-out for seals, as well as Hob- 
son and Young occasionally ; if in good condition 
and killed instantaneously, the seals float ; several 
have already been shot ; the Hver fried with ba- 
con is excellent. 

Birds have become scarce, — the few we see 
are returning southward. How anxiously I watch 
the ice, weather, barometer, and thermometer! 
Wind from any other quarter than S.E. would 
oblige the floe-pieces to rearrange themselves, in 
doing which they would become loose, and then 
would be our opportunity to proceed. 

2At/i. — Fine weather with very light northerly 
winds. "We have drifted 7 miles to the west in 
the last two days. The ice is now a close pack, 
so close that one may walk for many miles over 
it in any direction, by merely turnmg a little to 
the right or left to avoid the small water spaces. 
My frequent visits to the crow's-nest are not 
inspiriting: how absolutely distressing this im- 
prisonment is to me, no one without similar ex- 
perience can form any idea. As yet the crew 
have but little suspicion how blighted our pros- 
pects are. 



Aug. 1857. BESET IN MELVILLE BAT. 39 

2']th. ^^6 daily make attempts to push on, 

and «<7metimes get a ship's length, but yesterday 
evening we made a mile and a half! the ice then 
closed against the ship's sides and lifted her about 
a foot. We have had a fresh east wind for two 
days, but no corresponding ice-drift to the west ; 
this is most discouraging, and can only be ac- 
counted for by supposing the existence of much 
ice or grounded icebergs in that direction. 

The dreaded reality of wintering in the pack 
is gradually forcing itself upon my mind, — but I 
must not write on this subject, it is bad enough 
to brood over it unceasingly. We can see the 
land all round Melville Bay, from Cape Walker 
nearly to Cape York. Petersen is indefatigable 
at seal-shooting, he is so anxious to secure them 
for our dogs; he says they must be hit in the 
head ; "if you hit him in the beef that is not 
good/' meaning that a flesh-wound does not pre- 
vent their escaping under the ice. Petersen and 
Christian practise an Esquimaux mode of attract- 
ing the seals ; they scrape the ice, thus making a 
noise like that produced by a seal in making a 
hole with its flippers, and then place one end of 
a pole in the water and put their mouths close to 
the other end, making noises in imitation of the 
snorts and grunts of their intended victims ; 
whether the device is successful or not I do not 
know, but it looks laughable enough. 

Christian came back a few days ago, like a 



40 SEAL SUOOTING. Cnxp. III. 

true seal-hunter, carrying his kayak on his head 
and dragging a seal behind him. Onij' two 
years ago Petersen returned across this bay with 
Dr. Kane's retreating party ; he shot a seal which 
they devoured raw, and which under Providence, 
saved their lives. Petersen is a good ice-pilot, 
knows all these coasts as w^ell as or better than 
any man living, and, from long experience and 
habits of observation, is almost unerring in his 
prognostications of the weather. Besides his great 
value to us as interpreter, few men are bet- 
ter adapted for Arctic work, — an ardent sports- 
man, an agreeable companion, never at a loss for 
occupation or amusement, and always contented 
and sanguine. But we have happily many such 
dispositions in the ' Fox.' 

SOth. — The whole distance across Melville Bay 
is 170 miles: of this we have performed about 
120, 40 of wdiich w^e have drifted in the last four- 
teen days. The 'Isabel' sailed freely over this 
spot on 20th August, 1852 ; and the 'North Star' 
was beset on 30th July, 1849, to the southward 
of Melville Bay, and carried in the ice across it 
and some 70 or 80 miles beyond, when she was 
set free on 26th September, and went into win- 
ter quarters in Wolstenholme Sound, What a 
precedent for us ! 

Yesterday we set to work as usual to warp the 
ship along, and moved her ten feet : an insig- 
nificant hummock then blocked up the narrow 



Sept. 1857. THE COMING STORM. 41 

passage; as we could not push it before us, a 
two-pound blasting charge was exploded, and the 
surface ice was shattered, but such an immense 
quantity of broken ice came up from beneath, 
that the difficulty was greatly increased instead 
of being removed. This is one of the many 
instances in which our small vessel labors under 
very great disadvantages in ice-navigation — 
we have neither sufficient manual power", steam 
power, nor impetus to force the floes asunder. I 
am convinced that a steamer of moderate size 
and power, with a crew of forty or fifty men, 
would have got through a hundred miles of such 
ice in less time than we have been beset. 

The temperature fell to 25° last night, and the 
pools are strongly frozen over. I now look mat- 
ters steadily and calmly in the face ; whilst rea- 
sonable ground for hope remained I was anx- 
ious in the extreme. The dismal prospect of a 
" winter in the pack " has scarcely begun to dawn 
upon the crew; however, I do not think they 
will be much upset by it. They had some excit- 
ing foot-races on the ice yesterday evening. 

1^^ Sept. — The indication of an approaching 
S.E. gale are at all times sufficiently apparent 
here, and fortunately so, as it is the dangerous wind 
in the Melville Bay. It was on the morning of the 
30th, before church-time, that they attracted our 
attention : the wind was very light, but barometer 
low and falling ; very threatening appearances in 
4* 



42 DEIFTING IN THE PACK. Cuap. III. 

the S.E. quarter, dark-l^lue sk}^ and grey detached 
clouds .slowly rising ; -when the wind commenced 
the barometer began to rise. This gale lasted 
forty-eight hours, and closed up every little space 
of water; at first all the ice drifted before the 
wind, but latterly remained stationary. Twenty 
seals have been shot up to this time. 

On comparing Petersen's experience with my 
o^vn and that of the 'North Star' in 1849, it 
seems probable that the ice along the shores of 
Melville Bay, at this season, will drift northward 
close along the land as far as Cape Parr}'-, where, 
meeting with a S.W. current out of Whale or 
Smith's Sound, it will be carried away into the 
middle of Baffin's Bay, and thence during the 
winter down Davis' Strait into the Atlantic. 
From Cape Dudley Digges to Cape Parry, includ- 
ing Wolstenholme Sound, open water remains 
until October. It is strange that we have ceased 
to drift lately to the westward. 

Wi. — During the last week we have only 
drifted 9 miles to the west. Obtained soundings 
in 88 fiithoms; this is a discovery, and not an 
agreeable one. Of the six or seven icebergs in 
sight, the nearest are to the west of us ; they 
are very large, and appear to be aground ; we 
approach them slowl}^ Pleasant weather, but the 
winds are much too gentle to be of service to 
us ; although the nights are cold, yet during the 
day our men occasionally do their sewing on 



Sept. 1857. DEITTING IN THE PACK. 43 

deck. Our companions the seals are larger and 
fatter than formerly, therefore they float when 
shot ; we are disposed to attribute their improved 
condition to the better feeding upon this bank. 
The dredge brought up some few shell-fish, star- 
fish, stones and much soft mud. 

Wi. — On this day, in 1824, Sir Edward Parry 
got out of the middle ice, and succeeded in reach- 
ing Port Bowen. To continue hoping for release 
in time to reach Bellot Strait would be absurd ; 
yet to employ the men we continue our prepa- 
ration of tents, sledges, and gear for travelling. 
Two days ago the ice became more slack than 
usual, and a long lane opened ; its western ter- 
mination could not be seen from aloft. Every 
effort was made to get into this water, and by the 
aid of steam and blasting-powder we advanced 
100 yards out of the intervening 170 yards of 
ice, when the floes began to close together, a S.E. 
wind having sprung up. Had we succeeded in 
reaching the water, I think we should have extri- 
cated ourselves completel}^, and perhaps ere this 
have reached Barrow Strait, but S.E. and S.W. 
gales succeeded, and it now blows a S.S.E. gale, 
with sleet. 

IWi. — Young went to the large icebergs to- 
day; the nearest of them is 250 feet high, and 
in 83 fathoms water; it is therefore probably 
aground, except at spring tide ; the floe-ice was 



44 CANINE APPETITE. Cuap. III. 

drifting past it to the westward, and was crushing 
up against its side to a height of 50 feet. 

13//^. — Thermometer has fallen to 17° at noon. 
We have drifted 18 miles to the W. in the last 
week ; therefore our neighbors, the icebergs, are 
not alwa^'s aground, but even when afloat drift 
more slowly than the light ice. There is a water- 
sky to the W. and N.W. ; it is nearest to us in 
the direction of Cape York ; could ive only advance 
12 or 15 miles in iliat direction, I am convinced ive 
slioidd he free to steer for Barrow Strait. Forty- 
three seals have been secured for the dogs ; one 
dog is missing, the remaining twenty-nine de- 
voured their two days' allowance of seal's flesh 
(60 or 65 lbs.) in forty-two seconds! it contained 
no bone, and had been cut up into small pieces, 
and spread out upon the snow, before they were 
permitted to rush to dinner ; in this way the weak 
enjoy a fair chance, and there is no time for fight- 
ing. We do not allow them on board. 

16//^. — At length we have drifted past the 
large icebergs, obtaining soundings in 69 fath- 
oms within a mile of them ; they must now 
be aground, and have frequently been so during 
the last three wrecks; and being directly upon 
our line of drift, are probably the immediate 
cause of our still remaining in Melville Bay. 
The ice is slack everywhere, but the tempera- 
ture having fallen to 3°, new ice rapidly forms, so 



Sept. 1857. PEEPARIITG FOR WINTER. 45 

that the change comes too late. The western 
limit of the day — Cape York — is very distinct, 
and not more than 25 miles from us. 

18ih. — Lanes of water in all directions j but 
the nearest is half a mile from us. They come 
too late, as do also the N.W. winds which have 
now succeeded the fatal south-e asters. The tem- 
perature fell to 2° below zero last night. We 
are now at length in the "North Water;" the 
old ice has spread out in all directions, so that it 
is only the young ice — formed within the last 
fortnight — which detains us prisoners here. 

The icebergs, the chief cause of our unfortu- 
nate detention, and which for more than three 
weeks were in advance of us to the westward, are 
nov/, in the short space of two days, nearly out 
of sight to the eastward. 

The preparations for wintering and sledge- 
travelling go on with unabated alacrity; the 
latter will be useful should it become necessary 
to abandon the ship. 

Notwithstanding such a withering blight to my 
dearest hopes, yet I cannot overlook the many 
sources of gratification which do exist ; we have 
not only the necessaries, but also a fair portion 
of the luxuries, of ordinary sea-life ; our provi- 
sions and clothing are abundant and well suited 
to the climate. Our whole equipment, though 
upon so small a scale, is perfect in its way. We 



46 ^ PROSPECT FOR WINTER. Chap. III. 

all enjoy perfect health, and the men are most 
cheerful, willing, and quiet. 

Our " native auxiliaries," consisting of Christian 
and his twenty-nine dogs, are capable of perform- 
ing immense service; whilst Mr. Petersen, from 
his great Ai'ctic experience, is of much use to me, 
besides being all that I could wish as an inter- 
preter. Humanly speaking, we are not unreason- 
able in confidently looking forward to a successful 
issue of this season's operations, and I greatly fear 
that poor Lady Franklin's disappointment will 
consequently be the more severely felt. 

We are doomed to pass a long winter of abso- 
lute inutility, if not of idleness, in comparative 
peril and privation; nevertheless the men seem 
very happy — thoughtless, of course, as true sail- 
ors always are. 

We have drifted off the bank into much deeper 
water, and suppose this is the reason that seals 
have become more scarce. 

22wc/. — Constant N.W. Avinds continue to drift 
us slowly southward. Strong indications of water 
in the N.W., W., and S.E. ; its vicinity may ac- 
count for a rise in the temperature, without 
apparent cause, to 27° at noon to-day. 

The newly formed ice affords us delightful 
walking ; the old ice on the contrary is covered 
with a foot of soft snow. We have no shooting ; 
scarcely a living creature has been seen for a 
week. 



Sept. 1857. BEARS — AMUSEMENTS. 47 

2Uh. — Yesterday I thought I saw two of our 
men walking at a distance, and beyond some 
unsafe ice, but on enquiry found that all were on 
board : Petersen and I set off to reconnoitre the 
strangers ; they proved to be bears, but much too 
wary to let us come within shot. It was dark 
when we returned on board after a brisk walk 
over the new ice. The calm air felt agreeably 
mild. "We were without mittens; and but that 
the breath froze upon moustachios and beard, one 
could have readily imagined the night was com- 
fortably warm. The thermometer stood at -f- 5°. 

To-day when walking in a fresh breeze the 
wind felt very cold, and kept one on the look-out 
for frost-bites, although the thermometer was up 
to 10°. Games upon the ice and skating are our 
afternoon amusements, but we also have some 
few lovers of music, who embrace the opportunity 
for vigorous execution, without fear of being re- 
minded that others may have ears more sensi- 
tive and discriminating than their own. 

26M. — The mountain to the North of Melville 
Bay, known as the ^ Snowy Peak,' was visible yes- 
terday, although 90 miles distant ; I have calcu- 
lated its height to be 6000 feet. A raven was 
shot to-day. 

21th. — Our salt meat is usually soaked for some 
days before being used ; for this purpose it is put 
into a net, and lowered through a hole in the ice ; 
this morning the net had been torn, and only a 



48 DINNER STOLEN BY SHARKS. CuAt.III. 

fragment of it remained. Wc suppose our twenty 
two pounds of salt meat had been devoured by 
a shark; it would be curious to know how such 
fare agrees with him, as a full meal of salted pro- 
vision will kill an Esquimaux dog, which thrives 
on almost anything. I used to remonstrate upon 
the skins of sea-birds being given to our dogs, but 
was told the feathers were good for them ! Here 
all sea-birds are skinned before being cooked, 
otherwise our ducks, divers, and looms would be 
uneatably fishy. A well-baited shark-hook has 
been substituted for the net of salt meat ; I much 
wish to capture one of the monsters, as wonder- 
ful stories are told us of their doinQ:s in Green- 
land: whether they are the white shark or the 
basking shark of natural history I cannot find 
out. It is only of late years that the shark 
fishery has been carried on to any extent in 
Greenland; they are captured for the sake of 
their livers, which yield a considerable quantity of 
oil. It has very recently been ascertained that a 
valuable substance resembling spermaceti may be 
expressed from the carcase, and for this purpose 
powerful screw presses are now emploj'ed. In 
early winter the sharks are caught with hook and 
line throu2;h holes in the ice. 

The Esquimaux assert that they are insensible 
to pain; and Petersen assures me he has plunged 
a long knife several times into the head of one 
whilst it continued to feed upon a white whale 



Sept. 1857. THE ARCTIC SHARK. 49 

entangled in his net ! ! It is not sufficient to 
drive tliem away with sundry thrusts of spears 
or kniveS; but they must be towed away to some 
distance from the nets, otherwise they will return 
to feed. It must be remembered that the brain 
of a shark is extremely small in proportion to the 
size of its huge head. I have seen bullets fired 
through them with very little apparent effect; 
but if these creatures can feel, the devices prac- 
tised upon them by the Esquimaux must be cruel 
indeed. 

It is only in certain localities that sharks are 
found, and in these places they are often at- 
tracted to the nets by the animals entangled in 
them. The dogs are not suffered to eat either 
the skin or the head, the former in consequence 
of its extreme roughness, and the latter because 
it causes giddiness and makes them sick. 

The nets alluded to are set for the white whale 
or the seal ; if for the former, they are attached 
to the shore and extended off at right angles so as 
to intercept them in their autumnal southern mi- 
gration, when they swim close along the rocks to 
avoid their direst foe, the grampus, or killer, of 
sailors, the Delphinus orca of naturalists. When 
the white whale is stopped by the net it often 
appears at first to be unconscious of the fact, and 
continues to swim against it, affording time for 
the approach of the boat and deadly harpoon 
from behind. If entangled in the net a very 
6 D 



50 KILLERS. Chap. IIL 

short time suffices to drown them, as, like all the 
whale tribe, they are obliged to come to the sur- 
face to breathe. 

The killer is also a cetacean of considerable 
size, 15 to 20 feet in length, but of very different 
haljits; it is very swift, is armed with power- 
ful teeth, and is gregarious. When in sufficient 
numbers they even attack the whale, impeding 
his progress by fastening on his fins and tail. In 
summer they appear in the Greenland seas, and 
the seals instantlj'^ seek refuge from them in the 
various creeks and inner harbors ; and the Esqui- 
maux hunter in his frail kayak, when he sees the 
huge pointed dorsal fin swiftly cleaving the sur- 
face of the sea, is scarcel}^ less anxious to shun 
such dangerous company. With such stories as 
these Petersen beguiles the time ; I never tire of 
listening to them, and now amuse myself in jot- 
ting scraps of them down. 



Oct. 1S57. FIXED IN THE ICE. 51 



CHAPTER IV. 

Snow crystals — Dog will not eat raven — An Arctic school — The dogs 
invade us — Bear-hunting by night — Ice-artillery — Arctic palates — 
Sudden rise of temperature — Harvey's idea of a sortie. 

Sd Oct. — September has passed away and left us 
as a legacy to the pack ; what a month have we 
had of anxious hopes and fears ! 

Up to the 17th S.E. winds prevailed, forcing the 
ice into a compact body, and urging it north- 
westward ; subsequently N.W. winds set in, drift- 
ing it southward, and separating the floe-pieces; 
but the change of wind being accompanied by a 
considerable fall of temperature, they were either 
quickly cemented together again, or young ice 
formed over the newly opened lanes of water, 
almost as rapidly as the surface of the sea became 
exposed. During the month the thermometer 
ranged between -j-SG'^ and -2°, Two more bears 
and a raven have been seen. A wearied ptarmi- 
gan alighted near the ship, but before it could 
take wing again the dogs caught it, and scarcely 
a feather remained by the time I could rush on 
deck. 

Our beautiful little organ was taken out of its 
case to-day, and put up on the lower deck ; the 



52 S^'O^V CRYSTALS. CnAi'. IV. 

men enjoy its pleasing tones, whilst Christian un- 
ceasingly turns the handle in a state of intense 
delight \ he regards it with such awe and admira- 
tion, and is so entranced, that one cannot help 
envying him ; of course he never saw one before. 
The instrument was presented by the Prince Con- 
sort to the searching vessel bearing his name 
which was sent out by Lady Franklin in 1851 ; 
it is now about to pass its third winter in the 
frozen re2;ions. 

Two dogs ran off yesterday, in the vain hope, 
I suppose, of bettering their condition, — we only 
feed them three times a week at present ; they 
returned this morning. 

Seals are daily seen upon the new ice, but in 
this doubtful sort of light they are extremely 
timid, therefore our sportsmen cannot get within 
shot. The bears scent or hear our dogs, and so 
keep aloof; even the shark has deserted us, the 
bait remains intact. The snow crystals of last 
night are extremely beautiful ; the largest kind is 
an inch in length ; its form exactly resembles the 
end of a pointed feather. Stellar crystals two- 
tenths of an inch in diameter have also fallen ; 
these have six points, and are the most exquisite 
things when seen under a microscope. I remem- 
ber noticing them at Melville Island in March, 
1853, when the temperature rose to-|-S° ; as these 
were formed last night between the temperatures 
of _|_6° and -4-12°, it would appear that the form 



Oct. 1857. MONOTOKOUS LEFE. 53 

is due to a certain fixed temperature. In the sun, 
or even in moonlightj all these crystals glisten 
most brilliantly ; and as our masts and rigging are 
abundantly covered with them, the '^ Fox ' never 
was so gorgeously arrayed as she now appears. 

loth. — One day is very like another; we have 
to battle stoutly with monotony ; and but that 
each twenty-four hours brings with it necessary 
though trivial duties, it would be difficult to re- 
member the date. We take our guns and walk 
long distances, but see nothing. Two of the dogs 
go hunting on their own account, sometimes re- 
maining absent all night. What they find or do 
is a mystery. The weather is generally ca,lm and 
cold, — very favorable for freezing purposes at all 
events, — for the ice of only three weeks' growth 
is two feet thick. 

I hardly expect any considerable disruption of 
the ice before the general break-up in the spring, 
yet we do not trust any of our provisions upon 
it, nor is it sufficiently still to set up a magnetic 
observatory, for which purpose the instruments 
have been supplied to us. 

Petersen still hopes we may escape and get 
into Upernivik, as the sea is not permanently 
frozen over there before December. I am sur- 
prised to hear that eagles have been seen so 
far north as Upernivik, although it is but twice 
in twenty-four years that specimens have been 
noticed there. In Richardson's ^ Fauna Boreali 
5* 



51 •' HARNESS JACK." Chap. IV, 

Americana' the extreme northern limit of these 
birds is given as 66° ; but Upernivik is in 724". 

A few bear and fox tracks have been seen, but 
no living creatures for several daj's, except a Hock 
of ducks hastening southward, and a solitary ra- 
ven. 

It is said that Esquimaux dogs will eat every- 
thing except fox and raven. There are excep- 
tions, however; one of ours, old "Harness Jack," 
devoured a raven with much gusto some days 
ago. All the other dogs allowed their harness to 
be taken off when they were brought on board ; 
but okl Jack will not permit himself to be mi- 
robed ; when attempted he very plainly threatens 
to use his teeth. This canine oddity suddenly 
became immensely popular, by constituting him- 
self protecting head of the establishment when 
one of his tribe littered ; he took up a most un- 
comfortable position on top of the family cask 
(our wijorompiu kennel), and prevented the ap- 
proach of all the other dogs ; but for his timely 
interference on behalf of the poor little puppies, 
I verily believe they would all have been stolen 
and devoured ! Dogs may do even worse than 
eat raven. 

I have attempted some experiments for the 
purpose of determining the mean hourly change 
of oscillation of a pendulum due to the earth's 
diurnal motion; but as mine was only ll.\ feet 
in length, I fiiled of any approach to accuracy. 



Oct. 1857. AN AKCTIC SCHOOL. 55 

The mean of several observations gave 17° 47', 
whereas the change due to our latitude is about 
14° 30^ A single experiment gave 14° 10', and 
this was the longest in point of time of any of 
them, the pendulum having swung for thirty-six 
minutes. 

2A.tJi. — Furious N.W. and S.E. gales have alter- 
nated of late ; the ship is housed over, to keep 
out the driving snow ; so high is the snow carried 
in the ah' that a little box perforated with small 
holes and triced up 50 feet high is soon filled up ; 
this box is supplied morning and evening with a 
piece of prepared paper to detect the presence 
and amount of ozone in the atmosphere ; it is a 
peculiar pet of the Doctor's. 

At eight o'clock this evening I noticed the 
falling of a very brilliant meteor ; it passed 
through the constellation of Cassiopoeia in a 
N.N.E. dnection before terminating its visible 
existence, which it did very much like a huge 
rocket; the flash was so brilliant that a man 
whose back was turned to it mistook the illumi- 
nation for lightning. 

2^th. — Our school opened this evening, under 
the auspices of Dr. Walker. He reports eight or 
nine pupils, and is much gratified by their zeal. 
At present their studies are limited to the three 
R's — reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic. They have 
asked him to read and explain something instruc- 
tive, so he intends to make them acquainted with 



56 ICE DISTURBANCE. Chap. IV. 

the trade-winds and atmosphere. This subject 
affords an opportunity of explaining the uses 
of our thermometer, barometer, ozonometer, and 
electrometer, -which they see us take much in- 
terest in. It is delightful to find a spirit of 
inquiry amongst them. Apart from scholastic 
occupation, I give them healthful exercise in 
spreading a thick layer of snow over the deck, 
and encasing the ship all round with a bank of 
the same material. 

2Wi. — Midnight. This evening, to our great 
astonishment, there occurred a disruption and 
movement of the ice within 200 vards of the 
ship. The night was calm; the reflection of a 
bright moon, aided by the more than ordinary 
brilliancy of the stars upon the snowy expanse, 
made it appear to us almost daylight. As I sit 
now in my cabin I can distinctly hear the ice 
crushing; it resembles the continued roar of dis- 
tant surf, and there arc manj^ other occasional 
sounds; some of them remind one of the low 
moaning of the wind, others are loud and harsh, 
as if trains of heavy wagons with ungreased 
axles were slowly laboring along. Upon a less- 
favored night these sounds might be appalhng; 
even as it is, they are sufficiently ominous to 
invite reflection. Cape York has been in sight 
for some days past. 

2Wi. — Another heavenly night, and still greater 
ice disturbance ; some of the crushed-up pieces are 



Nov. 1857. THE DOGS INVADE US. 57 

nearly four feet thick. The currents, icebergs, 
and changes of temperature, may contribute to 
this ice action ; but I think the tides are the chief 
cause, and for these reasons : that it wants but 
two days to the full moon, and that the ice-move- 
ments are almost confined to the night, and 
change their direction morning and evening. 
Now we know that the night-tides in Greenland 
greatly exceed the day-tides. One thing is evi- 
dent — the weather continues calm, therefore the 
winds are not concerned in the matter. 

2nd Nov. — Having observed some days ago 
that a few of the dogs were falling away — from 
some cause or other not having put on their 
winter clothing before the recent cold weather 
set in — they were all allowed on board, and 
given a good extra meal. Since then we can 
scarcely keep them out. One calm night they 
made a charge, and boarded the ship so suddenly 
that several of the men rushed up very scantily 
clothed, to see what was the matter. Vigorous 
measures were adopted to expel the intruders, 
and there was desperate chasing round the deck 
with broomsticks, &c. Many of them retreated 
into holes and corners, and two hours elapsed 
before they were all driven out ; but though the 
chase was hot, it was cold enough work for the 
half-clad men. 

Sailors use quaint expressions. The nightly 
foraging expeditions are called "sorties;" they 



58 BEAR-IIUXTLNG BY NIGHT. Cuaf. IV. 

point out to me the various corners between 
decks where the " ice corrodes," i.e., the moisture 
condenses and forms frost j a ramble over the 
ice is called " a bit of a peruse." I presume this 
indignity is offered to the word perambulation. 

There was a very sudden call " to arras" to- 
night. Whether sleeping, prosing, or schooling, 
every one flew out upon the ice on the in.stant, 
as if the magazine or the boiler was on the point 
of explosion. The alarm of " A bear close-to, 
fighting with the dogs," was the cause. The 
luckless beast had approached within 25 yards 
of the ship ere the quartermaster's eye detected 
his indistinct outline against the snow ; so silently 
had he crept up that he was within 10 yards of 
some of the dogs. A shout started them up, and 
they at once flew round the bear and embarrassed 
his retreat. In crossing some very thin ice he 
broke through, and there I found him surrounded 
by 3^elping dogs. Poor fellow ! Ilobson, Young, 
and Petersen had each lodged a bullet in him ; 
but these only seemed to increase his rage. He 
succeeded in getting out of the water, when, fear- 
ing harm to the numerous b3'-standers and dogs, 
or that he might escape, 1 fired, and luckily the 
bullet passed through his brain. He proved to 
be a full-grown male, 7 feet 3 inches in length. 
As we all aided in the capture, it was decided 
that the skin should be offered to Lady Franklin. 

The carcase will feed our dogs for nearly a 



Nov. 1857. THE SUN'S LAST VISIT. 59 

month ; they were rewarded on the spot with 
the offal. All of them, however, had not shown 
equal pluck ; some ran off in evident fright, but 
others showed no symptom of fear, plunging 
or falling into the water with Bruin. Poor old 
Sophy was amongst the latter, and received a 
deep cut in the shoulder from one of his claws. 
The authorities have prescribed double allowance 
of food for her, and say she will soon recover. 

For the few moments of its duration the chase 
and death was exciting. And how strange and 
novel the scene ! A misty moon affording but 
scanty light — dark figures gliding singly about, 
not daring to approach each other, for the ice 
trembled under their feet — the enraged bear, 
the wolfish howling dogs, and the bright flashes 
of the deadly rifles. 

Srd. — I remained up the greater part of last 
night taking observations, for the evening mists 
had passed away, and a lovely moon reigned over 
a calm enchanting night; through a powerful 
telescope she resembled a huge frosted-silver 
melon, the large crater-hke depression answering 
to that part from which the footstalk had been 
detached. Not a sound to break the stillness 
around, excepting when some hungry dog would 
return to the battlefield to gnaw into the blood- 
stained ice. 

On the 1st the sun paid us his last visit for the 
year, and now we take all our meals by lamp- 
light 



60 GUY FAWKES' l^AY. Cuap. IV. 

^th. — In order to vary our monotonous routine, 
we determined to celebrate the da}'' ; extra grog 
was issued to the crew, and also for the first time 
a proportion of preserved plum-pudding. Lady 
Franklin most thoughtfully and kindly sent it on 
l)oard for occasional use. It is excellent. 

This evening a well-got-up -^^rocession sallied 
forth, marched round the ship with drum, gong, 
and discord, and then proceeded to burn the 
effigy of Guy Fawkes. Their blackened faces, 
extravagant costumes, flaring torches, and savage 
yells frightened away all the dogs; nor was it 
until after the fireworks were set off and the 
traitor consumed that they crept back again. It 
was school-night, but the men were up for fun, so 
gave the Doctor a holiday. 

12ih. — Yesterday I had the good fortune to 
shoot two seals; they were very fat and their 
stomachs were filled with shrimps. To-day Young 
and Petersen shot three more, and many others 
have been seen. This is cheering, and entice? 
people out for hours daily. There is just enough 
movement in the ice to keep a few narrow lanes 
and small pools of water open; the floes or fields 
of ice are more inclined to spread out from each 
other than to close. We have latterly been drift- 
ing before northerly winds. 

IWi. — A renewal of ice-crushing within a few 
hundred ^^ards of us. I can hear it in my bed. 
The ordinary sound resembles the roar of dis- 



Nov. 1857. ICE-AETILLEKY. 61 

tant surf breaking heavily and contiiiuouslj ; but 
when heavy masses come in collision with much 
impetus, it fully realizes the justness of Dr. Kane's 
descriptive epithet, "ice artillery." Fortunately 
for us, our poor little ^ Fox ' is well within the 
margin of a stout old floe : we are therefore un- 
disturbed spectators of ice-conflicts, which would 
be irresistible to anything of human construc- 
tion. Immediately about the ship all is still, and, 
as far as appearances go she is precisely as she 
would be in a secure harbor — housed all over, 
banked up with snow to her gunwales. In fact, 
her winter plumage is so complete that the masts 
alone are visible. The deck and the now useless 
sky-lights are covered with hard snow. Below 
hatches we are warm and dryj all are in excel- 
lent health and spirits, looking forward to an 
active campaign next winter. God grant it may 
be realized ! 

Yesterday Young shot the fiftieth seal, an 
event duly celebrated by our drinking the bottle 
of champagne which had been set apart in more 
hopeful times to be drunk on reaching the North 
Water — that unhappy failure, the more keenly 
felt from being so very unexpected. 

Petersen saw aLnd fired a shot into a narwhal, 
which brought the blubber out. When most 
Arctic creatures are wounded in the water, blub- 
ber more frequently than blood appears, particu- 
larly if the wound is superficial — it spreads over 
6 



62 ARCTIC PALATES. Cii^i>. IV. 

the surface of the water like oil. Bills of fare 
vary much, even in Greenland. I have inquired 
of Petersen, and he tells me that the Greenland 
Esquimaux (there are many Greenlanders of 
Danish origin) are not agreed as to which of 
their animals aflbrds the most delicious food ; 
some of them prefer reindeer venison, others 
think more favorably of young dog, the flesh of 
which, he asserts, is "just like the beef of sheep." 
He says a Danish captain, who had acquired the 
taste, provided some for his guests, and they 
praised his muUoii! after dinner he sent for the 
skin of the animal, which was no other than a 
large red dog! This occurred in Greenland, 
where his Danish guests had resided for many 
years, far removed from European mutton. Baked 
puppy is a real delicacy all over Polynesia : at 
the Sandwich Islands I was once invited to a 
feast, and had to feign disappointment as well as 
I could when told that puppy was so extremely 
scarce it could not be procured in time, and 
therefore sucking-pig was substituted ! 

\Wi. — A heavy southerly gale has increased 
the ice movements ; happilj- we are undisturbed. 
As Young was seated under the lee of a hum- 
mock, watching for seals to pop up to breathe, 
the strong ice under him suddenly cracked and 
separated ! He escaped with a ducking, and was 
just able to reach his gun from the bank ere it 
sank through the mixtui'e of snow and water. 



Nov. 1857. A LUCKY DOG. 63. 

Yesterday we were all out; I saw only one 
seal, but was refreshed by the sight of a dozen 
narwhals. It is a positive treat to see a living 
creature of any kind. The only birds which 
remain are dovekies, but they are scarce, and, 
being white, are very rarely visible. 

The dogs are fed every second day, when 2 
lbs. of seal's flesh — previously thawed when pos- 
sible — is given to each; the weaker ones get 
additional food, and they all pick up whatever 
scraps are thrown out ; this is enough to sustain, 
but not to satisfy them, so they are continually 
on the look-out for anything eatable. Hobson 
made one very happy without intending it ; he 
meant only to give him a kick, but his slipper, 
being down at heel, flew off, and away went the 
lucky dog in triumph with the prize, which of 
course was no more seen. 

Two large icebergs drift in company with us ; 
our relative positions have remained pretty nearly 
the same for the last month. 

23rc?. — A heavy gale commenced at N.E. on 
the 21st, and continued for thirty-six hours una- 
bated in force, but changed in direction to S.S.W. 
It appears to have been a revolving storm, moving 
to the N.W. Yesterday, as the wind approached 
S.E., the temperature rose to -\- 32° ; the upper 
deck sloppy; the lower deck temperature during 
Divine Service was 75° ! ! As the wind veered 
round to S.S.W., the wind moderated, and tempera- 



64 SUDDEN lUSE OF TEMl'ERATURE. Chap. IV. 

ture fell: this evening it is —7°. How is it that 
the S.E. wind has brought us such a very high 
temperature ? Even if it traversed an unfrozen 
sea it could not have derived from thence a 
higher temperature than 29". lias it swept 
across Greenland — that vast superficies partly 
enveloped in glacier, partly in snow ? No, it 
must have been borne in the higher regions of 
the atmosphere from the fiir south, in order to 
mitigate the severity of this northern climate. 

Petersen tells me the same M-arm S.E. wind 
suddenly sweeps over Upernivik in midwinter, 
bringing with it abundance of rain ; and that it 
always shifts to the S.W., and then the tempera- 
ture rapidly falls : this is precisely the change we 
have experienced in lat. 75°. I believe a some- 
what similar, but less remarkable, change of 
temperature was noticed in Smith's Sound, lat 
78f N. 

2Wi. — Mild "Madeira weather," as Ilobson 
calls it, temperature up to -\-T. By my desire 
Dr. Walker is occupied in making every possible 
experiment upon the freezing of salt water ; the 
first crop of ice is salt, the second less so, the 
third produces drinkable water, and the fourth 
is fresh. Frosty efflorescence appears upon ice 
formed at low temperatures in calm weather 
— it is brine expressed by the act of freezing. 
We need not wonder that dogs, when driven 
hard over this ice, which soon cuts their feet. 



Nov. 1857. THE DOGS' SO'RTEE. 65 

suffer intense pain, and often fall down in fits; 
nor that snow, falling upon young (sea) ice, 
wholly or partially thaws, even when the tem- 
perature is but little above zero ; when near the 
freezing-point the young ice thus coated over 
becomes sludgy and unsafe. 

2Mi. — Keen, biting, N.W. winds. No cracks 
in the ice, therefore no seals. Grey dawn at ten 
o'clock, and dark at two. The moon is every- 
where the sailor's friend, she is a source of com- 
fort to us here. Nothing to excite conversation, 
except an occasional inroad of the dogs in search 
of food ; this generally occurs at night. When- 
ever the deck-light, which burns under the 
housing happens to go out, they scale the steep 
snow banking and rush round the deck like 
wolves. " Why, bless you, Sir, the w^ery moment 
that there light goes out, and the quartermaster 
turns his back, they makes a regular sort(?e, and 
in they all comes." " But zvhere do they come in, 
Harvey ?" " Where, Sir ? why everywheres ; they 
makes no more to do, but in they comes, clean 
over all." Not long ago old Harvey was chief 
quartermaster in a line-of-battle ship, and a regu- 
lar magnet to all the younger midshipmen. He 
would spin them yarns by the hour during the 
night-watches about the wonders of the sea, and 
of the Arctic regions in particular — its bears, its 
icebergs, and still more terrific " auroras, roaring 
6* E 



66 PROXIMITY OF OPEN SEA. Cuap. IV. 

and flashing about the ship enough to frighten a 
fellow"! 

30//^. — Severe cold has arrived Avith the fall 
moon; eight days ago the thermometer stood at 
the freezing-point, it is now 64° below it! So 
dark is it now that I was able to obsers'e an 
eclipse of Jupiter's first satellite before three 
o'clock to-day. For the last two months we have 
drifted freely backwards and forwards before 
N.W. and S.K winds ; each time we have gained 
a more off-shore position, being gradually sepa- 
rated further and farther from the land by fresh 
growths of ice, which invariably follow uj) every 
ice-movement. In this manner we have been 
thrust out to the S.W. 80 miles from the nearest 
land, and into that free space which in autumn 
was open water, and which we then vainly strug- 
gled to reach. 

That the ice has been most free to move in 
this direction is additional evidence of the recent 
proximity of an open sea, and shows that in all 
probabilit}^ — I had almost said certainty — we 
should have sailed, or at least drifted into it, had 
it not been for those enemies to all progress, 
the grounded bergs. 



Dec. 1857. BUBIAL IN THE PACK. 67 



CHAPTER V. 

Burial in the pack — Musk oxen in lat. 80° north — Thrift of the Arctic 
fox — The aurora affects the electrometer — An Arctic Christmas — 
Sufferings of Dr. Kane's deserters — Ice acted on by wind only — How 
the sun ought to be welcomed — Constant action of the ice — Return 
of the seals — Eevolving storm. 

Mil Dec. — I HAVE just returned on board from 
the performance of the most solemn duty a com- 
mander can be called upon to fulfil. A funeral 
at sea is always peculiarly impressive ; but this 
evening at seven o'clock, as we gathered around 
the sad remains of poor Scott, reposing under an 
Union Jack, and read the Burial Service by the 
light of lanterns, the effect could not fail to 
awaken very serious emotions. 

The greater part of the Church Service was 
read on board, under shelter of the housing ; the 
body was then placed upon a sledge, and drawn 
by the messmates of the deceased to a short dis- 
tance from the ship, where a hole through the 
ice had been cut : it was then " committed to the 
deep," and the Service completed. What a scene 
it was ! I shall never forget it. The lonely 'Fox,' 
almost buried in snow, completely isolated from 
the habitable world, her colors half-mast high, 



•^8 BURIAL IN THE PACK. Chap. V. 

and bell mournfully tolling ; our little procession 
slowly marcliing over the rough surface of the 
frozen sea, guided by lanterns and direction-posts, 
amid the dark and dreary depth of Arctic win- 
ter; the deathlilve stillness, the intense cold, and 
threatening aspect of a murky, overcast sky ; and 
all this heightened by one of those strange lunar 
phenomena which are but seldom seen even here, 
a complete halo encircling the moon, through 
which passed a horizontal band of pale light that 
encompassed the heavens ; above the moon aj> 
peared the segments of two other halos, and there 
were also mock moons or paraselena) to the num- 
ber of six. The misty atmosphere lent a very 
ghastly hue to this singular display, which lasted 
for rather more than an hour. 

Poor Scott fell down a hatchway two days only 
before his death, which was occasioned by the in- 
ternal injuries then received ; he was a steady, 
serious man ; a widow and family will mourn his 
loss. He was our engine-driver ; we cannot re- 
place him, therefore the whole duty of working 
the engines will devolve upon the engineer, 
Mr. Brand. 

11th. — Calm, clear weather, pleasant for ex- 
ercise, but steadily cold ; thermometer varies be- 
tween -20° and -30°. At noon the blush of 
dawn tints the southern horizon, to the north the 
sky remains inky blue, whilst overhead it is bright 
and clear, the stars shining, and the pole-star near 



■ r-^^%^'f> -a ■ .., ; ^'''';^f ';tt':,*^^ I'll.' / '. ' 












'''■.If 'i I ' I 



1.1 I 



I ' ' I, 
" II ii I . 



Iii'i |i'il 



ii"ii ii 



ii 



Ml 



i; 1 1 1. 

fi I'V 

' .'h'l''. 

': I'll' ' 

'i I I 

III I ii- .1 
I " 



I 'II 'III 

mm.'! 



!!!j;,!w;iiiiiii!!iir/i'' i' ' 



II 



w'm'\ 




.;,' 'll'.'J'E'f.WM''-'-'-^' 



III 



ji " 'i I I ii 
I'l ii ii ,ii I I 



If 



'«f!liii(i'A^i|'l'lili;i'i!''i 

.■1,-1 I'l , ''iiiW fiViii i'!''" I 

';';;i'/'i^''';''i r',111"' ' 

iii'ii"i'i'ii'i iiii'iii ill I 'Mill 'II 



iiiiiiiis 



Dec. 1857. MUSK OXEN EST LAT.80°N. G9 

the zenith very distinct. Although there is a 
light north wind, thin mackerel-clouds are pass- 
ing from south to north, and the temperature 
has risen 10°. 

I have been questioning Petersen about the 
bones of the musk oxen found in Smith's Sound ; 
he says the decayed skulls of about twenty were 
found, all of them to the north of the 79th paral- 
lel. As they were all without lower jaws, he says 
they were killed by Esquimaux, who leave upon 
the spot the skulls of large animals, but the 
weight of the lower jaw being so trifling it is al- 
lowed to remain attached to the flesh and tongue. 
The skull of a musk ox with its massive horns 
cannot weigh less than 30 lbs. 

Although it has been abundantly proved by 
the existence of raised beaches and fossils, that 
the shores of Smith's Sound have been elevated 
within a comparatively recent geological period, 
yet Petersen tells me that there exist numerous 
ruins of Esquimaux building^s, probably one or 
two centuries old, all of which are situated upon 
very low points, only just sufficiently raised above 
the reach of the sea ; such sites, in fact, as would 
at present be selected by the natives. These 
ruins show that no perceptible change has taken 
place in the relative level of sea and land since 
they were originally constructed. At Petersen's 
Greenland home, Upernivik, the land has sunk, 



70 TimiPT OF THE ARCTIC FOX. Chai-. V. 

as is plainly shown by similar ruins over which 
the tides now flow. 

Anything which illustrates the habits of ani- 
mals in such extremely high latitudes I think is 
most interesting; their instincts must be quick- 
ened in proportion as the difficulty of subsisting 
increases. Foxes, white and blue, are very nu- 
merous ; all the birds are merely summer visitors, 
therefore the hare is the only creature remaining 
upon which foxes can prey ; but the hares are 
comparatively scarce : how then do the foxes live 
for eight months of each year ? Petersen thinks 
they store up provisions during the summer in 
various holes and crevices, and thus manage to 
eke out an existence during the dark winter sea- 
son ; he once saw a fox carry off eggs m his 
mouth from an eider-duck's nest, one at a time, 
until the whole were removed ; and in winter he 
has observed a fox scratch a hole down through 
very deep snow, to a cache of eggs beneath. 

The men are exercised at building snow huts ; 
for winter or early spring travelling, this knowl- 
edge is almost indispensable. Upon a calm day 
the temperature of the external air being —33'^, 
within a snow hut the thermometer stood 17° 
higher, this important difference being due to the 
transmission of heat through the ice from the sea 
beneath. 

Evaporation goes on through ice from the 
water underneath it. The interior of each snow 



Dec. 1857. THE AURORA. 71 

hut is coated with crystals, and the ice upon which 
the huts are built is four feet thick, but when no 
longer in contact with water I cannot discover 
any evaporation from ice. For instance, a canvas 
screen on deck which became wet by the sudden 
thaw last month still remains frozen stiff. 

lUh. — Of late there has been much damp 
upon the lower deck. This has now been reme- 
died by enclosing the hatchway within a com- 
modious snow-porch, which serves as a condenser 
for the steam and vapor from the inhabited deck 
below. 

19/4 — Light N.W. winds, with occasional mists; 
the temperature is comparatively mild : -12° to 
-25°. 

It is now the time of spring-tides ; they cause 
numerous cracks in the ice ; but why so, at such a 
great distance from the land, I cannot explain. 
The three nearest points of land are respectively 
110, 140, and 180 miles distant from us. 

Much aurora during the last two days. Yester- 
day morning it was visible until eclipsed by the 
day-dawn at 10 o'clock. Although we could no 
longer see it, I do not think it ceased : very thin 
clouds occupied its place, through which, as 
through the aurora, stars appeared scarcely 
dimmed in lustre. I do not imagine that aurora 
is ever visible in a perfectl// clear atmosphere. I 
often observe it just silvering or rendering lumi- 



72 AN ARCTIC CHRISTMAS. Chap. V. 

nous the upper edge of low fog or cloud banks, 
and with a few vertical rays feebly vibrating. 

Last evening Dr. Walker called me to witness 
his success with the electrometer. The electric 
current w^as so ver}^ w^eak that the gold-leaves 
diverged at regular intervals of four or five sec- 
onds. Some hours afterwards it was strong 
enough to liCcp them diverged. 

2I5/. — Midwinter day. Out of the Arctic re- 
gions it is better known as the shoiiest day. At 
noon we could just read type similar to the lead- 
ing article of the ' Times.' Few people could 
read more than two or three lines without their 
eyes aching. 

27//«. — Our Christmas was a very cheerful, 
merry one. The men were supplied with several 
additional articles, such as hams, plum-puddings, 
preserved gooseberries and apples, nuts, sweet- 
meats, and Burton ale. After Divine Service 
they decorated the lower deck with flags, and 
made an immense display of food. The officers 
came down with me to see their preparations. 
We were really astonished ! The mess-tables 
were laid out like the counters in a confectioner's 
shop, with apple and gooseberry tarts, plum and 
sponge-cakes in pyramids, besides various other 
unknown pufis, cakes, and loaves of all sizes and 
shapes. We bake all our own bread, and ex- 
cellent it is. In the background were nicely- 



Dec. 1857. AN AECTIC CHRISTMAS. 



73 



browned hams, meat-pies, cheeses, and other 
substantial articles. Rum and water in wine- 
glasses, and plum-cake, were handed to us: we 
wished them a happy Christmas, and compli- 
mented them on their taste and spirit in getting 
up such a display. Our silken sledge-banners had, 
been borrowed for the occasion, and were re- 
garded with deference and peculiar pride. 

In the evening the officers were enticed down 
amongst the men again, and at a late hour I was 
requested, as a great favor, to come down and 
see how much they were enjoying themselves. 
I found them in the highest good humor with 
themselves and all the world. They were per- 
fectly sober, and singing songs, each in his turn. 
I expressed great satisfaction at having seen them 
enjoying themselves so much and so rationally. I 
could therefore the better describe it to Lady 
FrankHn, who was so deeply interested in every- 
thing relating to them. I drank their healths, 
and hoped our position next year would be more 
suitable for our purpose. We all joined in drink- 
ing the healths of Lady Franklin and Miss Cra- 
croft, and amid the acclamations which followed 
1 returned to my cabin, immensely gratified by 
such an exhibition of genuine good feehng, such 
veneration for Lady Franklin, and such loyalty 
to the cause of the expedition. It was very 
pleasant also that they had taken the most cheer- 
ing view of our future prospects. I verily beHeve 
7 



74 NEW YEAR'S DAY. Chap. V. 

I ^vas the happiest incliviclual on board, that 
happy evening. 

Our Christmas-box has come in the sliape of 
northerly Avinds, which bid fair to drift us south- 
ward towards those latitudes wherein we hope 
for liberation next spring from this icy bondage. 

28//^. — \ye have been in expectation of a gale 
all day. Tliis evening there is still a doubtful 
sort of truce amongst the elements. Barometer 
down to 28-83 ; thermometer up to +5°, although 
the wind has been strong and steady from the 
N. for twenty-four hours, low scud flying from 
the E., snow constantly falling. An hour ago the 
wind suddenly changed to S.S.E. ; the snowing 
has ceased; thermometer falls and barometer 
rises. 

2nd Jan. 1858. — New-Year's day was a second 
edition of Christmas, and quite as pleasantly spent. 
We dwelt inuch upon the anticipations of the fu- 
ture, being a more agreeable theme than the fail- 
ure of the past. I confess to a hearty welcome 
for the new year — anxious, of course, that we 
may escape uninjured, and sufficiently early to 
pursue the object of our voyage. 

Exactly at midnight on the 31st December the 
arrival of the new year was announced to me by 
our band — two flutes and an accordion — strik- 
ing up at my door. There was also a procession, 
Or perhaps I should say a continuation of the 
band ; these performers were grotesquely attired, 



Jan. 1858. SUTFEEINGS OF AN AECTIC PARTY. 76 

and armed with frying-pans, gridirons, kettles, 
pots, and pans, with which to join in and add to 
the effect of the other music ! 

We have a very level hard walk alongside the 
ship ; it is narrowed to two or three yards in 
width by a snow-bank four feet high. In the 
face of this bank some twenty-five holes have 
been excavated for the dogs, and in them they 
spend most of their time. It looks very formida- 
ble in the moonlight, being a good imitation of a 
casemated battery. 

After our rubber of whist on New Year's night 
Petersen related to us some of his dreadful suffer- 
ings when with the party which had left Dr. 
Kane. They spent the months of October and 
November in Booth Sound, lat. 77°; all that time 
upon the verge of starvation, unable to advance 
or retreat. For these two months they had no 
other fuel than their small cedar boat, the smoke 
of which was not endurable in their wretched 
hut, and without light, for the sun left them in 
October, unless we except one inch and a half of 
taper daily, which they made out of a lump of 
bees'-wax that accidently found its way into their 
boat before leaving the ship. In December they 
regained their vessel. I am surprised that no ac- 
count of the extreme hardships of this party — so 
far exceeding that of their shipmates on board — 
has ever appeared ; and I regret it, as I believe 
they owed their lives to the experience and 



76 ICE ACTED ON BY WIND ONLY. Chap. V. 

fidelity of their interpreter Petersen. At first 
the Esquimaux assisted them ; latterly they were 
quite unable to do so, and became anxious to get 
rid of their visitors. Observing how weakened 
they had become, the Esquimaux endeavored to 
separate them from their guns and from each 
other, and even used threatening; lan^i-uasre. 

During December we drifted 07 miles, directly 
down Baffin's Bay towards the Atlantic, and are 
now in lat. 74°. Although it is quite impossible 
to discriminate between the several influences 
which probably govern our movements, or to as- 
certain how much is due to each of them — such 
as the relative positions of ice, land, and open 
water, winds, currents, and earth's rotation — yet 
it appears in the present instance that the wind is 
almost the sole ao-ent in hastenino; this vast coiili- 
nent of ice towards the latitudes of its dissolution. 
We move before the wind in proportion to its 
strength : we remain stationary in calm weather. 
Neither surface nor submarine current has been 
detected ; the large icebergs obe}^ the same influ- 
ences as the surface ice. We have noticed a 
slight set to the westward — it is not likely to be 
produced by current, and may be the result of 
the earth's motion from west to east. 

Wi. — Many lanes of water. A seal has been 
seen, the only one for six weeks. Of the old ice 
which so closely hemmed us in up to the middle 
of September, there is hardly any within several 



Jan. 1858. RETURN OF THE SUN. 77 

miles of us except the large floe-piece we are 
frozen to. Every crack or lane which opens is 
quickly covered with young ice, so that it cannot 
close again ; and in this manner the old ice has 
been spread out. I rejoice in its dispersion ! 

To-day I put a tumblerful of our strong ale 
( Allsopp's) on deck to freeze : this was soon effect- 
ed, the temperature being —35°. After bringing 
it below, and when its temperature had risen 
to 17°, it was almost all thawed — at 22° it was 
completely so : it looked muddy, but settled after 
standing for a couple of hours, when I drank it 
off, in every way satisfied with my experiment 
and my beer : it seemed none the worse for its 
freezing, but rather flat from its long exposure in 
a tumbler. 

l^th. — Northerly winds blow almost constantly. 
We have drifted 60 miles since the 1st, and are 
only 115 miles from Upernivik, — once more 
upon confines of the habitable world ! good light 
for three hours daily ; all this is cheering. We 
continue our snow-hut practice, and can build one 
in three-quarters of an hour. 

2Sth. — The upper edge of the sun appeared 
above the horizon, to-day, after an absence of 
eighty-nine days; it was a gladdening sight. I 
sent for the ship's steward and asked what was 
the custom on such occasions? "To hoist the 
colors and serve out an extra half-gill, sir," was 
the ready reply : accordingly, the Harwich lion 



78 THE SICK LIST. CHi.r. V. 

soon fluttered in a breeze cool enough to stiflen 
the limbs of ordinary lions, and in the evening 
the eroo; was issued. 

30//f. — Our messmate Pussy is unwell, and 
wont eat; in vain has Hobson tempted her 
with raw seal's flesh, preserved salmon, preserved 
milk, etc. ; at length castor-oil was forcibly ad- 
ministered. Puss is a great favorite. Our finest 
dog, Sultan, is also sick, and his coat is in bad 
order J blubber has been prescribed for him; — 
and poor old Mary has fits, not uncommon after 
the long winter. Petersen immediately ordered 
her to be bled by slitting her ear ; but Christian, 
in his fright and haste, cropped the tip of it off. 
These comprise our only medical cases. A dove- 
kie, in its white winter plumage, and two seals 
have been seen lately. 

\Wi Feb. — The returning daylight cheers us 
up wonderfully — not that we were sufiering, 
either mentally or bodily, but the change is most 
agreeable; we can take much longer walks than 
were possible during the dark period. The men 
have been supplied with muskets, and go out 
sporting as ardently as schoolboys. I took a long 
walk towards one of our iceberg companions, but 
could not quite reach it, as weak ice intervened, 
each step producing an undulation. Finding the 
point of my knife went through it with but 
very slight resistance, I gave up the attempt and 
turned back. The ship's masts were scarcely visi- 



Feb. 1858. CONSTANT ACTION OF THE ICE. 79 

ble in the distance ; almost the whole of the in- 
tervening ice was of this winter's growth, and in 
many places much crushed up. 

Daylight reveals to us evidences of vast ice 
movements having taken place during the dark 
months when we fancied all was still and quiet ; 
and we now see how greatly we have been fa- 
VDred, what innumerable chances of destruction 
we have unconsciously escaped ! A few days ago 
the ice suddenly cracked within ten yards of the 
ship, and gave her such a smart shock that every 
one rushed on deck with astonishing alacrity. 
One of these sudden disruptions occurred between 
me and the ship when I was returning from the 
iceberg ; the sun was just setting as I found my- 
self cut oK Had I been on the other side I 
would have loitered to enjoy a refreshing gaze 
upon this dark streak of water ; but after a smart 
run of about a mile along its edge, and finding no 
place to cross, visions of a patrol on the floe for 
the long night of fifteen hours began to obtrude 
themselves ! At length I reached a place where 
the jagged edges of the floes met, so crossed and 
got safely on board. Nothing was seen during 
this walk of nearly 25 miles except one seal. 
Recent gales have drifted us rapidly southward j 
cracks and lanes are very numerous. 

On the 1st a blue (or sooty) fox was shot. Al- 
though 130 geographical miles from the nearest 
land he was very fat, hence we argue dovekies 



80 RETURN OF A DESERTER. Chap. V. 

were much more numerous during winter than 
we supposed. We have often noticed the tracks 
of foxes following up those of the bears, probably 
for discarded scraps of the seals upon which they 
prey. Hobson's favorite dog " Chummie " has re- 
turned, after an absence of six days, decidedly 
hungiy, but he can hardly have been without 
food all that time ; some fox may have lured him 
off He evinced great delight in getting back, 
devoted his first attentions to a hearty meal, then 
rubbed himself up against his own particular as- 
sociates, after which he sought out and attacked 
the weakest of his enemies, and, soothed by their 
how^hngs, coiled himself up for a long sleep. 

1st March. — February has been a remarkably 
mild, cloudy, wdndy month : the winter tempera- 
ture may be said to have passed away by the 
10th, the average temperature for the first ten 
days being -25°, whilst for the remainder of the 
month it Tvas -11°. Had one fallen asleep for a 
month at least, he could not reasonably have ex- 
pected to find a greater change on awaking. Our 
drift has been also great, — 1G6 miles. We arc 
south of the 70th parallel, and may soon be ex- 
pelled from our icy home. 

On the 24th there w\as a fearful gale of wind. 
Had not our housing been very well secured, it 
must have been blown awa}^ We are preparing 
for sea, removing the snow from off the deck and 
round the shijD ; our skylights have been dug out 



Mar. 1858. KETUEN OF THE SEALS. 81 

(in winter they are always covered with a thick 
layer of snow), and the flood of light which beams 
down through them is quite charming. How in- 
tolerably sooty and smoke-dried everything looks ! 

On the 27th the first seal of this year was 
shot ; it came in good time, for the fifty-one 
seals shot in autumn were finished only two 
days before : our English supply of dogs' food 
therefore remains almost untouched. Snow was 
observed to melt against the ship's side exposed 
to the sun, the thermometer in the shade stand- 
ing at — 22° ! A very fine dog has died from 
eating a quantity of salt fish, which he managed 
to get at although it was supposed to be quite 
out of his reach. 

One of the two large icebergs which com- 
menced this voyage with us last October, in 
751° N., has drifted out of sight to the S.E., the 
other one is far off in the N.W. I attribute 
these increased distances solely to the spreading 
abroad of the intervening ice. 

When we were far north, and probably drifting 
more slowly than the ice in the stream of Lan- 
caster Sound to the westward of us, the ship's 
head turned very gradually from right to left, 
from N.N.W. to "W. ; when about the parallel 
of 72° N., we supposed ourselves to be drifting 
faster than the western ice ; in this, as in the 
previous case, comparing our drift with that of 
Lieutenant De Haven, the shijD's head slowly 



82 REVOLVING STOKM. Cuap. V. 

shifted back to the right as far as W.N.W. ; 
latterly it has not changed at all : v,e are in a 
narrower part of Davis' Strait, -where the winds 
probably blow with equal force from shore to 
shore and drift the whole pack at a uniform rate. 

6th. — On the 2nd four fat seals and some dove- 
kics were shot; the largest seal weighed 170 
lbs., the smallest 150 lbs. ; they were males 
of the species Phoca hespida, or Phoca foetida, 
the latter epithet being by far the most appro- 
priate at this season ; the disagreeable odor re- 
sembles garlic, and taints the whole animal so 
strongly that even Esquimaux are nearly over- 
piowered by it : this is almost the only descrip- 
tion of seal we have obtained, but the females 
are at all seasons free from fetor. Several long 
lanes of water extend at rigjlit angles to the 
straits. 

The Doctor has taken a photograph of the 
ship by the albumen process on glass ; the tem- 
perature at the time was below zero. Upon the 
3rd and 4th a well-remarked revolving stoim 
passed nearl}^ over us to the W.N.W. ; its ex- 
treme diameter was 30 hours, that of the strength 
of the gale 18 hours ; its centre probably passed 
about one-tenth of its diameter to the S.AV. The 
barometer was rather high, having risen just be- 
fore the wind commenced at N. E. ; but it now 
fell half an inch in ten hours, and continued to 
fall until the wind shifted — almost suddenly — 



Ux-R. 1858. DISCO SIGHTED. 83 

through S.E. to S.S.W. ; immediately the barom- 
eter got up rapidly. As the barometer fell, the 
temperature rose from zero to -f--''-^^ ^^^ ^^^1 
again after the change of wind. This violent 
storm brought with it a smart hail-shower. 

The depression of the ice about the bows, in 
consequence of a vast accumulation of snow-drift 
uj)on it, brought the ship down by the head con- 
siderably ; to-day this ice suddenly detached it- 
self, and the fore part of the vessel sprang up ; 
she still remains frozen and held down abaft. 
The snow-banking looks very woe-begone after 
this ice-qiialce ; it inchnes out from the ship, and 
in many places has been prostrated by the shock. 

Early on the morning of the 7th the high land 
of Disco was seen ; its distance was upwards of 
90 miles. 



84 A BEAR FIGHT. Chap. VI. 



CHAPTER VI. 

A bear-figlit — An ice-nip — Strong gales, rapid drift — Tlio ' Fox ' 
breaks out of tlic pack — Hanging on to floe-edge — the Arctic bear — 
An ice tournament — The 'Fox' in peril — A storm in the pack — 
Escape from the pack. 

9//^ March. — A bear was seen this morning ; but 
as he was going away from us, the dogs Avere 
brought out in the hope that they might keep 
him at bay until the sportsmen came up. It was 
very pretty to see them take up the scent, the 
moment they caught sight of him the}^ set off at 
full speed. Bruin had seen them first, and in- 
creased his pace to a clumsy gallop, yet the dogs 
were soon around him ; he seemed to care but 
little about them, steadily making off and follow- 
ing the trending of a recently frozen crack in 
search of clear water, evidently aware that his 
persecutors would not follow him there. 

After five hours all returned on board again ; 
out of the ten dogs four were wounded by his 
claws, — skin deep onl}^, — but one of the wounds 
was seven inches in length, as if made with a 
sharp knife ! this was sewed up, the others were 
merely trimmed, and nature, I am infonned, will 
do all the rest. It is really wonderful what cm'es 



Mae. 1858. SEAL STEAKS. 85 

nature and instinct eflfect : notwithstanding the 
extreme cold, no external dressings are applied, 
because the animal must not be prevented from 
licking its wound. Petersen says this bear must 
be very thin, else he could not run so fast. I 
think it very probable that he has been hunted 
before, and that fear lent him wings. A black 
whale has been seen. 

nth. — Two small seals free from taint were 
shot yesterday, so we had fried liver and steaks 
for breakfast this morning ; both were good, but 
the steaks were preferred ; they were very dark 
and very tender, had been cut thin, deprived of 
all fat, and washed in two or three waters to get 
rid of the blubber. 

\Wi. — Several long lanes of water have again 
opened, but now all of them extend parallel to 
the direction of the straits ; one lane passed with- 
in 120 yards of the ship ; its extremes are not 
visible even from aloft ; the ice upon its east side 
has a more rapid southerly motion than that 
upon its west side. 

IWi. — Last night the ice closed, shutting up 
our lane, but its opposite sides continued for 
several hours to move past each other, rubbing 
off all projections, crushing, and forcing out of 
water masses four feet thick : although 120 yards 
distant, this pressure shook the ship and cracked 
the intervening ice. 

I went out with a lantern to see the nip, — 



86 AN ICE-NIP. Chap. VI. 

it certainly was awe-inspiring ; no one in his 
senses could avoid reflecting npon the inevitable 
fate of a ship if exposed to such fearful pressure. 
It is now spring tides. 

19^^. — All yesterday the lane remained open ; 
in the evening it closed with but slight pressure ; 
yet as the opposing fields of ice continued to 
move in opposite directions, all jagged points 
were brushed off, and the debris thus formed 
between their edges presented a heaving surface 
of ice-masses, — an ice river. On the separation 
of the floes, mass after mass forced itself up to 
the surface, until at length all the submerged 
ice had risen, except such as had been forced 
quite under their edges. One seldom meets 
with a cleanly fractured floe-edge, they are 
usually fringed with crushed-up ice or newly 
formed sludge. 

23r^. — Seals and dovekies are now common ; 
the latter have already made considerable ad- 
vances towards their summer plumage. 

Yesterday there was a very heavy S.E. gale ; 
it blew so furiously, and the snow-drift was so 
dense, that we could neither hear nor see what 
was going on twenty yards off; at night the ship, 
becoming suddenly detached from the ice, heeled 
over to the storm; until the cause was ascer- 
tained we thought the ice had broken up and 
pressed against the ship. It was not so ; but 
when the weather moderated w^e found that there 



Mar. 1858. STRONG GALES. 87 

had been heavy pressure upon the edge of the 
floes, — so much, indeed, that the lane of water 
was now within 70 yards of the ^ Fox ; ' and that 
ice 4:1 feet thick had been crushed during the 
storm for a distance of about 50 yards. 

25th. — Strong N.W. winds lately, the ship 
rocking to the breeze, and rubbing her poor 
sides against the ice, producing a creaking sound 
which is far from pleasant. More ice squeezing, 
and a further inroad upon our barrier ; it ha« 
yielded slightly, nipping the ship, inclining her 
to port, and lifting her stern about a foot. Occa- 
sional groanings within, and surgings of the ice 
without. 

Our boats, provisions, sledges, knapsacks, and 
equipment, are ready for a hasty departure, — 
beyond this we can do nothing ; as long as our 
friendly barrier lasts we need not fear, but who 
can tell the moment it may be demolished, and 
the ship exposed to destruction? I am scrib- 
bling within a foot of the sternpost — in fact, 
there is a notch in my table to receive it; and 
I sympathize with its constant groanings ; the ice 
allows it no rest. 

27th. — Strong N.W. gale with a return of 
cold weather. We have drifted 39 miles in the 
last" forty-eight hours ! The lane is open ; the 
whole pack appears to have plenty of room to 
drift, and, I am happy to add, is taking advan- 
tage of it, — so much so that the smaller pieces 



88 BREAKING UP OF ICE. Chap. VI. 

floating freely in the lane can hardly go at the 
same pace. Our remaining "winter companion, 
the iceberg, was in sight a few days ago, far away 
to the N.W. ; it may be still visible from aloft, 
but these March gales cut so keenly, that the 
crow's-nest is but seldom visited. 

olst. — Another N.W. gale ; it is also spring 
tides, and this conjunction makes one fearful of 
ice movement and pressure; but it seems as if 
the pack had more room to move in, as it does 
not close much. Seals are often shot, bear tracks 
are common, and narwhals are frequently seen 
migrating northward. The bears must prefer 
the night-time for wandering about, else we 
could not help seeing them ; we often find their 
tracks within a few hundred yards of the ship. 

Although the last, yet this is the coldest day 
of the month — the thermometer down to -27°. 
The mean temperature for March has been unu- 
sually high, -3'" ; whilst Lieutenant De Haven's 
was -17°. Notwithstanding that heavy S.K 
gales have three times driven us backward, yet 
we have advanced 100 miles further down Davis' 
Straits. 

Qt/i April. — To-day we enjoy fine weather, the 
more so since it comes after a tremendous north- 
erly gale of forty-eight hours' duration. Two 
days ago the friendly old floe, so long our bul- 
wark of defence, was cracked ; the lane of water 
thus formed soon widened to GO yards, passed 



Apk. 1858. BREAKING UP OF ICE. 89 

within 30 yards of the ' Fox/ and cut off three 
of our boats. Yesterday morning another crack 
detached the remaining 30 yards from us, and as 
it widened the ship swung across the opening ; as 
quickly a>s we could effect it the ship was again 
placed alongside the ice and within a projecting 
point ; had it closed only a few feet whilst she 
lay across the lane, the consequences must have 
been very serious. Even to effect this slight 
change of position we were fully occupied for 
four hours ; for the gale blew furiously, and ther- 
mometer stood at 12° below zero, and the cold 
was very much felt ; our hawsers were frozen so 
stiff as to be quite unmanageable, and we were 
obliged to use the chain cables to warp the ship 
into safety. 

Throughout yesterday the wind continued ex- 
tremely strong and keen, — fortunately the ice 
remained perfectly still : our funnels refused to 
draw up the smoke ; so that between the suffoca- 
tion, the cold, and anxiety lest the ice should 
move, our Easter Monday was sufficiently miser- 
able. The half of our poor dogs were cut off 
from the ship by the lane, and continued to howl 
dismally until late, when the new ice over the 
lane was strong enough to bear them, and they 
canie across to us. 

To-day we have recovered the boats, shot four 
seals, seen two whales, and much water to the 



90 OUT OF THE PACK. Coap. VI. 

eastward ; wc are in latitude 67° 18' N., and 
highly delighted with the rapidity of our south- 
ern drift. 

lO/Zt. — Yesterday evening the setting sun ren- 
dered visible the western land, probably Cape 
Dyer. We have drifted 70 miles in the last week, 
and are only 18 miles from De Haven's position 
of escape ; but as we are two months earlier, we 
must expect to be carried farther south. 

\2th. — This morning we drifted ingloriously 
out of the Arctic regions, and with what very dif- 
ferent feelings from those with which we crossed 
the Arctic circle eight months ago ! However, 
we have not done with it yet ; directly the ice lets 
us go, we will (D. V.) re-enter the frigid zone, and 
" try again," with, I trust, better success. 

A gull and a few terns appeared to-day ; these 
are the first of our summer visitors. The tem- 
perature improves; yesterday at one o'clock it 
was -|-19° in the shade, -|-15° in the crow's-nest 
70 feet high, and -|-51° against a black surfiice 
exposed to the sun. 

lUh. — Last night a bear came to the ship, was 
wounded, but escaped; to-day the tracks were 
followed up for three miles, the bear found, and 
again wounded — finally the unluckj'^ beast was 
shot in the water seven miles from the ship ; it 
was lost in consequence of the rapid drifting of 
the ice, which ran over the floating carcase. 



Apk. 1858. DOGS LOST. 91 

To-niglit a dense fog-bank rests upon the water 
to the southward ; its upper edge is illuminated 
hj aurora, showing a faint tremulous light. 

17th. — Another northerly gale ; holding fast to 
the ice with three hawsers ; snow-drift limits the 
view to a couple of miles, so all to the eastward 
appears water, and to the westward ice. 

Last night the ice opened considerably ; to se- 
cure the ship occupied us for six hours ; several 
of the dogs were again cut off; as the ice they 
were on was rapidly drifting away, I sent a boat 
to recover them ; it was a difficult and hazardous 
business, but at length the boat and dogs re- 
turned in safety, to my great relief, for it was 
both dark and late. 

ISth. — Yesterday morning when I wrote up 
my journal, I was hoping to hold on quietly to 
the floe-edge until the wind moderated, when 
with clear weather we could take advantage of 
the openings and make some progress towards the 
clear sea. We were unable to hold on, for the 
floe-edge broke away, setting us adrift ; some time 
was occupied in fetching ofi" the boats and dogs, 
— five of the latter unfortunately would not allow 
themselves to be caught. As speedily as possible 
the rudder was shipped and sail set, and before 
three o'clock the ship was running fast to the 
eastward ! During the night the ice closed, and 
at daylight scarcely any water was visible ; with 
the exception of a couple of icebergs, all the ice 



92 THE ARCTIC BEAR. Chap. VI. 

in sight was not more than two daj's old ; it 
mainly owes its origin and rapid growth to the 
immense quantities of snow blown oil' the pack. 

It still blows hard, and the thermometer stands 
at 11°. A sudden opening of the ice this fore- 
noon allowed us to run a few miles southward, 
and then it closed again ; we are now surrounded 
by young ice. 

20ih. — We have been carried rapidly past the 
position where the Arctic discovery ship ' Reso- 
lute ' was picked up. 

Yesterday three bears, a fulmar petrej, and a 
snow bunting were seen ; to-day a fine bear came 
within 150 yards, and was shot by our sportsmen ; 
as they were standing round it afterwards u})on 
the ice, a small seal, the only one seen for several 
days, popped up its head as if to exult over its 
fallen enemy — it was of course instantly shot : 
we have learnt to esteem seal's Uver for breakfast 
very highly. 

It seems hardly right to call polar bears land 
animals; they abound here, — 110 geograpliical 
miles from the nearest land, — upon very loose 
broken-up ice, which is steadily drifting into the 
Atantic at the rate of 12 or 14 miles daily j to re- 
main upon it would insure their destruction were 
they not nearly amphibious ; they hunt by scent, 
and are constantly running across and against the 
wind, which prevails from the northward, so that 
the same instinct which directs their search for 




The Greenlanflei's supper appropriated by a bear. 



Apr. 1858. THE ARCTIC BEAE. 93 

prey, also serves the important purpose of guid- 
ing them in the direction of the land and more 
solid ice. 

I remarked that the upper part of both Bruin's 
fore-paws were rubbed quite bare; Petersen ex- 
plains that to surprise the seal a Bear crouches 
down with his fore-paws doubled underneath, and 
pushes himself noiselessly forward with his hind- 
er legs until within a few yards, when he springs 
upon the unsuspecting victim, whether in the 
water or upon the ice. The Greenlanders are 
fond of bear's flesh, but never eat either the heart 
or liver, and say that these parts cause sickness. 
No instance is known of Greenland bears attack- 
ing men, except when wounded or provoked; 
they never disturb the Esquimaux graves, although 
they seldom fail to rob a c^che of seal's flesh, 
which is a similar construction of loose stones 
above ground. 

A native of Upernivik, one dark winter's day, 
was out visiting his seal-nets. He found a seal 
entangled, and, whilst kneeling down over it upon 
the ice to get it clear, he received a slap on the 
back — from his companion as he supposed ; but 
a second and heavier blow made him look smartly 
round. He was horror-stricken to see a pecu- 
liarly grim old bear instead of his comrade ! with- 
out deigning further notice of the man. Bruin tore 
the seal out of the net and commenced his sup- 



94 THE OCEAN SWELL. Chap. VI. 

per. lie was not interrupted ; nor did the man 
wait to see the meal finished. 

I had long ago resolved, if Ave escaped before 
the 15th, or the 20th April at the latest, to go to 
Newfoiuidland to refresh the crew and to refit, 
even if no damage from the ice should be sus- 
tained. In order to do so it would have been 
necessary for us to visit a Greenland port for a 
supply of water. We could not have calculated 
upon much assistance from our engines upon such 
a voyage, Mr. Brand alone being capable of work- 
ing the engines, so that ten or twelve hours daily 
is all the steaming that could have been ex- 
pected. 

But we are still ice-locked, so I purpose going 
to Holsteinborg in preference to a more southern 
port, as there we may expect to get reindeer and 
a small supply of stores suitable to our wants. 
The whalers sometimes reach Disco in March, 
Upernivik in May, and the North Water early in 
June. Unless we should be at once set free, we 
would not have time to spare for a Newfoundland 
voyage. 

24//^. — Another anxious week has passed. Latr 
terly we have experienced south-westerly cur- 
rents similar to those which Parr}^ describes when 
beset here in June, 1819. To-day we have had 
a strong S.E. breeze, with snow and dark weather. 
The wind had greatly moderated when the swell 



Apk. 1858 AN ICE-TOUKNAMENT. 95 

reached us about eight o'clock this evening. It 
is now ten o'clock ; the long ocean swell already 
lifts its crest five feet above the hollow of the sea, 
causing its thick covering of icy fragments to 
dash against each other and against us with un- 
pleasant violence. It is however very beautiful 
to look upon, the dear old familiar ocean-swell ! 
it has long been a stranger to us, and is welcome 
in our solitude. If the '^ Fox ' was as solid as her 
neighbors, I am quite sure she would enter into 
this ice-tournament with all their apparent hearti- 
ness, instead of audibly making known her suffer- 
ings to us. Every considerable surface of ice has 
been broken into many smaller ones ; with feel- 
ings of exultation I watched the process from 
aloft. A floe-piece near us, of 100 yards in diame- 
ter, was speedily cracked so as to resemble a sort 
of labyrinth, or, still more, a field-spider's web. 
In the course of half an hour the family resem- 
blance was totally lost; they had so battered 
each other, and struggled out of their original 
regularity. The rolling sea can no longer be 
checked; "the pack has taken upon itself the 
functions of an ocean," as Dr. Kane graphically 
expresses it. 

IWi. — At sea! How am I to describe the 
events of the last two days? It has pleased God 
to accord to us a deliverance in which His merci- 
ful protection contrasts — how strongly! — with 
our own utter helplessness; as if the successive 



96 THE ' FOX ' IN PERIL. Chap. VI. 

mercies vouchsafed to us during our loug, long 
winter and mysterious ice-drift had heen con- 
centrated and repeated in a single act. Thus 
forcibly does His great goodness come home to 
the mind ! 

I am in no humor for writing, being still tired, 
seedy, and perhaps a little seasick ; at least I have 
a headache, caused by the rolling of the ship and 
rattling noise of everything. 

On Saturday night, the 24th, I went on deck 
to spend the greater part of it in watching, and 
to determine what to do. The swell greatly in- 
creased; it had evidently been approaching for 
hours before it reached us, since it rose in propor- 
tion as the ice was broken up into smaller pieces. 
In a short time but few of them were equal in 
size to the ship's deck ; most of them not half so 
large. I knew that near the pack-edge the sea 
would be very heavy and dangerous; but the 
wind was now fair, and having auxiliary steam- 
power, I resolved to push out of the ice if possi- 
ble. 

Shortly after midnight the ship was under sail, 
slowly boring her way to the eastward ; at two 
o'clock on Sunday morning commenced steaming, 
the wind having failed. By eight o'clock we had 
advanced considerably to the eastward, and the 
swell had become dangerously high, the waves 
risino; ten feet above the trouQ-h of the sea. The 
shocks of the ice against the ship were alarmingly 



Apr. 1858. CLEAR OP THE PACK. 



97 



heavy; it became necessary to steer exactly head- 
on to swell. We slowly passed a small iceberg 
60 or 70 feet high; the swell forced it crashing 
through the pack, leaving a smaU water-space in 
Its wake, but sufficient to aUow the seas to break 
agamst its chffs, and throw the spray in heavy, 
showers quite over its summit. 

The day wore on without change, except that 
the snow and mists cleared off Gradually the 
swell increased, and rolled along more swiftly, 
becoming in fact a very heavy regular sea, rather 
than a swell. The ice often lay so closely packed 
that we could hardly force ahead, although the 
fair wind had again freshened up. Much heavy 
hummockyice and large berg-pieces lay dispersed 
through the pack ; a single thump from any of 
them would have been instant destruction. By 
five o'clock the ice became more loose, and clear 
spaces of water could be seen ahead. We went 
faster, received fewer though still more severe 
shocks, until at length we had room to steer 
clear of the heaviest pieces; and at eight o'clock 
we emerged from the viUanous "pack," and were 
running fast through straggling pieces into a clear 
sea. The engines were stopped, and Mr. Brand 
permitted to rest after eighteen hours' duty, for 
we now have no one else capable of driving the 
engines. 

Throughout the day I trembled for the safety 
of the rudder, md screw; deprived of the one or 



9 o 



98 DANGER FROM ICE-MASSES. CnAi-. VI. 

the other, even for half an hour, I think our fiite 
would have been sealed ; to have steered in any 
other direction than arjahid the swell would have 
exposed, and probably sacrificed both. 

Our bow is very strongly fortified, well plated 
externally with iron, and so very sharp that the 
ice-masses, repeatedly hurled against the ship by 
the swell as she rose to meet it, were thus robbed 
of their destructive force; they struck us ob- 
liquely, yet caused the vessel to shake violently, 
the bells to ring, and almost knocked us off 
our legs. On many occasions the engines were 
stopped dead by ice choking the screw ; once it 
was some minutes before it could be got to re- 
volve again. Anxious moments those ! 

After yesterday's experience I can understand 
how men's hair has turned grey in a few hours. 
Had self-reliance been my only suppoi't and hope, 
it is not impossible that I might have illustrated 
the fact. Under the circumstances I did my best 
to insure our safety, looked as stoical as possible, 
and inwardl}^ trusted that God would fiivor our 
exertions. What a release ours has been, not 
only from eight months' imprisonment, but from 
the perils of that one day ! Had our little vessel 
been destroyed after the ice broke up, there re- 
mained no hope for us. But we have been 
brought safely through, and are all truly grateful, 
I hope, and believe. 

I grieve to think of poor Lady Franlilin and 



Ape. 1858. STEERING FOR HOLSTEINBORG. 99 

our friends at home. Severely as we have felt 
the failure of our first season's operations, yet the 
ordeal is now over with us : not so with her and 
them, — they have still to experience that bitter 
disappointment. 

Our distance within the pack-edge, where we 
first made sail yesterday, was 22 miles. Before 
we got clear of the ice the height of the waves 
was 13| feet ; after passing through the last of it 
there was no increase, but the sea was more con- 
fused; in fact, within the ice all minor disturb- 
ances were quelled or merged into one regular 
fast-following swell. The ship and her machinery 
behaved most admirably in the struggle ; should 
I ever have to pass through such an ice-covered, 
heaving ocean again, let me secure a passage in 
the ' Fox.' 

During our 242 days in the packed-ice of Baf- 
fin's Bay and Davis' Straits we were drifted 1194 
geographical or 1385 statute miles ; it is the long- 
est drift I know of, and our winter, as a whole, 
may be considered as having been mild, but very 
windy. 

We are steering now for Holsteinborg, where 
I intend to refit and refresh the crew ; it is re- 
puted to be the best place for reindeer upon 
the coast. 



100 ANCHORED AT HOLSTEIMJORG. Chap. VTL 



CHAPTER VII. 

A holiday in Greenland — A lady blue with cold — The loves of Green- 
landers — Close shaving — Meet the wlialcrs — Information of wluil- 
ers — Disco — Danish hospitality — Sail from Disco — Kindness of 
the whalers — Danish establishments in Greenland. 

Wednesday/ night, April 2Sth. — Safely anchored at 
Holsteinborg, and moored to the rocks; a charm- 
ing change, after our position only a few days 
back. We have been visited by the Danish resi- 
dents — the chief trader or governor, the priest, 
and two others : their latest European intelligence 
is not more recent than our own, but the Danish 
ship is hourly expected; she usually leaves Co- 
penhagen about the middle of March. 

The winter here has been just the reverse of 
our own experience ; it has been severe in point 
of temperature, but with very little wind ; the 
land lies buried in snow, and as yet there is no 
thaw ; it is too early for the codfishery, and not 
a single reindeer has been killed throughout the 
winter ! Eider-ducks, looms, and dovekies are 
abundant, as well as hares and ptarmigan. 

2dih. — A bright and lovely day. Our poor, 
half-famished dogs have been landed near the 
carcases of four whales, so they must be su- 



Ape. 1858. HOLIDAY IN GREENLAM). 101 

premely happy. I visited the Governor to-day, 
and found his little wooden house as scrupulously 
clean and neat as the houses of the Danish res- 
idents in Greenland invariably are. The only 
ornaments about the room were portraits of his 
unfortunate wife and two children: they em- 
barked at Copenhagen last year to rejoin him, 
and the ill-fated vessel has never since been heard 
of Poor Governor Elberg is in ill health, and 
talks of returning home — by home he means 
Denmark, the land of his birth, and where once 
he had a home. 

2>Wi. — This is a grand Danish holiday ; the in- 
habitants are all dressed in their Sunday clothes 
— at least, all who have got a change of gar- 
ments — and there is both morning and evening 
service in the small wooden church. As the 
Governor could not be persuaded to unlock the 
door of the dance-house, our men returned on 
board early ; yesterday evening they were all on 
shore, and, with the Esquimaux, were squeezed 
into this one large room: to be squeezed in a 
crowd of human beings is positive enjoyment 
after a winter's isolation such as ours has been. 
Old Harvey constituted himself master of the 
ceremonies, and with his flute led the orchestra; 
it consisted of one other flute and a fiddle ; he 
managed to perch himself above all the rest, 
at one end of the room, and played with such 
vigor that our bluejackets and the Esquimaux 



102 HOLIDAY IN GREENLAND. Chap. YU. 

ladies danced away most furiously for hours. 
These ladies can dance in the least pos:?ible 
space, their costume being particularly well 
adapted for the purpose, partaking as it does 
much more of the " Bloomer " than the " crin- 
oline." 

Christian looks immensely happy : his country- 
men regard him as a man whose fortune is made, 
and the women gaze with admiration upon his 
neat sailor's dress, and his good-natured, full, round 
face, and huge, fat, shining cheeks ; Mr. Petersen 
is in great request to interpret between the Eng- 
lish, Danes, and Esquimaux. 

7th May. — I intended sailing for Disco this 
morning, but wind and weather were adver.se. 
We have obtained but little here except water, 
a tolerable supply of rock cod, some ptarmigan 
hares, wildfowl, and a few items of stores. The 
Governor noiv thinks the Danish ship must have 
been directed to visit Godhaab before coming here. 
We have left letters to go home in her, and they 
ought to be in England by the end of June. 

I visited to-day a small lake at the foot of 
Mount Cunningham; it is said to occupy the 
centre of an extinct volcano : but I saw nothing 
to bear out the assertion. This is the only part 
of Greenland where earthquakes are felt. The 
Governor told me of an unusually severe shock 
which occurred a winter or two ago. He was sit- 
ting in his room reading at the time, when he 



Mat, 185S. AN EARTHQUAKE. 103 

heard a loud noise like the discharge of a cannon; 
immediately afterwards a tremulous motion was 
felt, some glasses upon the table began to dance 
about, and papers lying upon the window-sill fell 
down : after a few seconds it ceased. He thinks 
the motion originated at the lake, as it was not 
felt by some people living beyond it, and that it 
passed from N.E. to S.W. 

This mountain scenery is really charming ; but 
a little more animal life — reindeer, for instance 
— would make it far more pleasing in our eyes. 
The last twelvemonth's produce of this district 
amounts only to 500 reindeer skins instead of 3000, 
as in ordinary years. The clergyman of Holstein- 
borg was born in this colony, and has succeeded 
his father in the priestly office ; his wife is the 
only European female in the colony. Being told 
that fuel was extremely scarce in the Danish 
houses, and that " the priest's wife was blue with 
the cold," I sent on shore a present of some coals. 

On Sunday afternoon, hearing the church bell 
ringing I went on shore. It proved to be only 
a christening. The little dusky infant received a 
long string of European names. There was a 
small description of barrel-organ, to the sound of 
which the congregation joined in, keeping up a 
loud monotonous chant. Most of the young 
people had Iiymn-books in their hands, printed 
in the Esquimaux language. 

Ravens seem very abundant, also large grey 



104 THE LOVES OF GREENLANDERS. Chap. VII. 

falcons: perhaps the dead whales may have at- 
tracted an unusual number. 

Poor Christian has not only fallen desperately 
m love, but has engaged himself to the object 
of his affections, a pretty Esquimaux girl. He 
asked me to-day to give her a passage up to God- 
havn, as he wished to leave her in charge of his 
mother until his return there with us next year, 
when his engagement for the voyage would be 
fulfilled. Having heard a rumor of a young 
woman awaiting his return at Godhavn, 1 taxed 
him with it, but he replied with great simplicity 
that " he had never promised her, and would not 
marry her, as his friends objected to the match !" 
What are the good Greenlanders coming to ? I 
recommended that he should have his betrothed 
in her own home, with her mother and fiimily. 
His asking a passage for her, in order to leave her 
with his mother, is strong proof of the sincerity of 
his engagement, not only to his lady love, but to 
the ^ Fox ' also. 

I have written to the admiralty to account for 
my prolonged absence from England ; and to Dr. 
Rink to acquaint him with the cause of my second 
visit to his inspectorate. 

Governor Elberg has promised to get me some 
fossil fish, to be found only in North Strom Fiord : 
they are interesting, as being of unknown geologi- 
cal date. 

10^^. — On the morning of the 8 th we left Hoi- 



May, 1858. STOPPED BY THE ICE. 105 

steinborg with a pleasant land wind and bright 
weather. When 15 miles off shore we weie 
stopped by ice formed during the last two nights, 
the thermometer having fallen to 12° ; out in the 
offing the weather was gloomy and cold, and 
strong northerly winds were blowing. On clos- 
ing the land again, we regained the offshore wind, 
and briofht weather. 

o 

Keeping close alongshore, and threading our 
way through a vast deal of " pack " and numerous 
icebergs, we gained sight of Disco about noon to- 
day, and by the evening were within an hour's 
sail of Godhavn, when we were again stopped 
by a broad belt of ice stretching along the coast • 
this was a bitter disappointment, more particu- 
larly as a gale of wind with heavy sea was fast 
rising, and snow beginning to fall thickly ; there 
was nothing for it, however, but to stand off under 
easy sail for the night. 

12tk — At anchor at the Whalefish Islands. On 
the evening of the 10th we stood off from the 
inhospitable barrier of ice, prepared to meet the 
storm ; snow fell so thickly that we could hardly 
see the icebero;s in time to avoid them. We 
supposed ourselves to be well to leeward of 
the Whalefish Islands, but were deceived by the 
tides ; suddenly a small, low islet was seen on the 
lee bow ; not being able to pass to windward, we 
were obliged to wear ship, and, in doing so, passed 
within the ship's length of destruction — for we 



106 WHALEFISII ISLAITDS. Chap. VII. 

were certainly within that distance of the rocks ! 
The islet was covered with snow, and but for 
some very few dark points showing through, it 
could not be distinguished from ice. On the 11th 
the weather improved, and in the evening we 
came to our present anchorage. From a hill we 
can watch an opportunity to enter Godhavn. 
Notwithstanding the blowing weather, some nar 
tives came about five miles off to us ; the water 
washed over their little Imyaks, and kept the occu- 
pants' sealskin dresses streaming with wet up to 
their shoulders j this part of their dress seems 
rather part of the kayak, as it is attached to it 
round the hole in which the hayahcr sits, so that 
no water can enter. It is wonderful to see how 
closely a man can assimilate his habits to those of 
a fish. 

The Danish cooper in charge of tliis outrstation 
tells us there are thirteen English whalers already 
out, and some of them have been up to the north 
end of Disco ; two vessels are in sight. The 
world, it appears, is at peace. Petersen was at 
one time in charge of this station ; he is now 
seeking out his old acquaintances. 

\Uli. — Summer has suddenly burst upon us — 
thermometer up to 40° ; moreover, we are enjoy- 
ing English newspapers, and have dined off roast 
beef and vegetables ! 

Two days ago I sent a note off to a whaler by 
a kayak, requesting her captain to lend me some 



Mat, 1858. MEET THE WHALERS. 107 

newspapers ; the note reached Captain J. Walker, 
of the 'Jane/ and yesterday his ship, accompa- 
nied by the ^Heroine/ Captain J. Simpson, ap- 
proached us, and they both came in to call upon 
me, each of them bringing the very acceptable 
present of some newspapers, besides a quarter of 
beef, with vegetables. Nothing could exceed their 
sincere good feeling and kindness; they offered 
to supply me with anything their ships could 
afford. The account they give of last season is 
as follows: the whalers reached Devil's Point, 
near Melville Bay, as early as the 21st of May ; 
southerly winds then set in, and blew incessantly 
for six weeks, during all which time they were 
closely beset, and the ships ' Gipsy ' and '- Un- 
daunted' were crushed. When able to move, the 
fleet returned southward along the " pack-edge," 
which was everywhere found to be impenetrable ; 
they sailed southward of Disco, and about the 
middle of July the earliest ships rounded the 
southern extremity of middle ice in lat. 682°, and 
found no difficulty in their further passage to 
Pond's Bay. Captain Walker says ships could 
not have reached Lancaster Sound, as there was 
much ice north of Pond's Bay which he thought 
extended quite across to Melville Bay. 

The position of the ice last season was con- 
sidered to be most unusual ; the long prevalence 
of southerly winds appeared to have separated the 
tail of the pack from the main body, the former 



108 UNUSUAL POSITION OF ICE. Chap. VII. 

lying against the west land about Cape Searle, 
whilst the latter was forced northward and pressed 
closely into Melville Bay; the ships sailed freely 
between these two great divisions, and found the 
west water unusually extensive. 

Had I been able to collect a sufficient number 
of sledge-dogs at Godhavn last year, it was my in- 
tention to have sailed across to the west side if pos- 
sible, instead of pursuing the usual route through 
Melville Bay ; but the opinions of the captains of 
the lost whalers were in favor of a "Melville Bay" 
passage, and the necessity for obtaining dogs left 
me no choice as to whether I should proceed west, 
or north to Proven and Upernivik ; I have already 
recorded what were my opinions al the ihne, so 
need only observe noiv, that, although I failed, I be- 
lieve my decision was justified b}^ all former ex- 
perience, even independently of the circumstances 
which obliged me to adopt it. Nevertheless it is 
mortifying to find that ships had reached as far as 
Pond's Ba}^, and with but little difficulty. Su* 
Edward Parry, upon his third voyage, did not 
reach the west water until very late in the season, 
although some of the whalers met with better 
success by following up another route. 

There is nothing more uncertain than ice- 
navigation, dependent as it is upon winds, temper- 
atures, and currents : one can only calculate upon 
" the chances," and how nearly we succeeded we 
have already seen. In the preceding year (1856) 



Mat, 1858. UNCEETAINTT OF ICE-NAVIGATION. 109 

some of the whalers got through Melville Bay as 
early as the 15th June, only a few days after the 
commencement of the summer's thaw. Captain 
Walker tells me there are many years in which 
the whalers can pass up the western shore late in 
the season, but not always so far as Pond's Bay ; 
of Melville Bay after the 10th or 15th July they 
know nothing, but the voyages of discovery afford 
us ample details ; whilst of the southern route 
almost nothing has been made publicly known. 

There are many intelligent whaling captains 
who possess much valuable knowledge of these 
lands and seas, and even in the terra incognita 
of Frobisher's Straits, whalers have wintered, 
whilst our charts scarcely afford even a vague 
idea of the configuration of these extensive 
islands. The so-called " Home Bay " has been 
penetrated for fifty miles, and is supposed to be 
a strait leading to Fox's Furthest. Scott's Inlet 
is also said to be a strait leading into a western 
arm of the same sea. A surveying vessel would 
be usefully employed for a couple of summers 
in tracing the general outline of these pos- 
sessions of Her Majesty, more particularly as 
they are rather thickly inhabited by Esquimaux 
most eager to barter their produce for rifles, 
saws, files, knives, needles, and such like articles. 
Good coal has been found upon Durbin Island 
(near Cape Searle), in a convenient little cove 
10 



110 



DANISH HOSPITALITY. Ciiai-. VII. 



upon its southern side ; and as the old sailing 
whalers arc fast being replaced by steamers, 
this place may become of great importance to 

them. 

We are refitting, shooting, and devouring 
quantities of excellent mussels; eider ducks are 
very abundant, but extremely shy. Poor puss 
has been killed; tempted on deck by the unu- 
sually warm Avcathcr, she was pounced upon by 

the dogs. 

Yllk^ — Yesterday our attempt to enter the 
port of Godhavn failed, it is still fdled with ice. 
This evening Young and I examined a nar- 
row rocky cove — Upernivik Bay of the natives ; 
finding it suitable for our purpose, the ship was 
brought in and moored to the rocks. We were 
received with much kindness by our friends, 
Mr. and Mrs. Olrik, and were presented with 
a file of late English papers. A considerable 
supply of beer was ordered to be brewed for 

us. 

I found Mrs. Olrik without a fire in her sittmg 
room ; it was unnecessary ; the windows looked to 
the south, and the sun shone brightly in upon a 
profusion of geraniums and European flowei-s, at 
once reminding one of home, and refreshing the 
senses by their perfume and beauty; the merry 
voices of the children were also a most pleasing 
novelty. Mr. Olrik says the past winter has not 



Mat, 1858. INTERCHANGE OF PRESENTS. IH 

been in any way remarkable, except for the pre- 
valence of strong winds ; April and the early 
part of May have been unusLially cold. 

2ith. — We did honor to Her Majesty's birth- 
day by dressing the ' Fox ' in all her flags, and 
regaling her crew with plum-pudding and grog. 
The ice having moved off, we have come into the 
harbor of Godhavn, as being more convenient and 
safe. The day has been a busy one : we have 
completed our small purchases and closed our 
letters ; I have added another Esquimaux lad to 
our crew, taking with him his rifle, kayak, and 
sledge. This evening there has been a brisk in- 
terchange of presents between us and our Danish 
friends. I have been given an eider-down cover- 
let by the Governor, Mr. Andersen ; and, by Mrs. 
Olrik, some delicious preserve of Greenland cran- 
berries, a tin of preserved ptarmigan, and a jar 
of pickled whale-skin ; my table is decked with 
European flowers, including roses, mignonette, 
and violets. 

With good reason shall we remember God- 
havn ; we have certainly been treated as especial 
favorites. 

2Wi. — Left Godhavn early yesterday morn- 
ing, and anchored this afternoon in our old posi- 
tion off the Coal Cliffs in the Waigat ; a party of 
seal-hunters from Atanekerdluk came off to us, 
and their hunting having terminated successfully, 



112 COALING. Chap. VIL 

they will assist us in coaling. From these men I 
obtained much information about this part of the 
coast ; "witliin a range of 20 miles upon the Disco 
shore there are four distinct coaling places; but 
at this early season two of them are deeply cov- 
ered with snow. There is also very good coal at 
the S.E. end of Hare Island, where it can be 
easily obtained. The ice in this strait broke up 
as long ago as the ord April ; it has all drifted 
out to the northward, only a few icebergs now 
remain. 

2Wi. — Again hastening northward; the busi- 
ness of coaling was very speedily and satisfac- 
torily completed, but the quality of the coals is 
very inferior. Upon the green slopes our sports^ 
men found nothing but a few ptarmigan and a 
hare. 

Shortly after running close past the deserted 
settlement of Noursak, we arrived off a small 
bay, and were startled by finding the water had 
suddenly changed from transparent blue to a 
thick muddy color, but there was no change in 
its depth ; we were crossing the stream of " Mak- 
kaks Elvin," or Clay Eiver, which empties itself 
into the bay after running through a broad and 
extensive valley, said to abound with reindeer; 
this river has its origin in lakes and glaciers in 
the interior, and the discoloration of the water 
is probably the chief cause of success in white- 



Mat, 1858. PROXIMITY OE THE WHALERS. 113 

whale fishing, which is carried on here in the 
autumn, as those timid animals will not permit 
boats to approach them in clear water. 

This evening we are crossing Omenak's Fiord, 
and the land-wind, which here and all along the 
coast northwards blows from the N.E., has come 
off to us. 

Slst — Lying fast to an iceberg off Upernivik. 

The whalers are all within a dozen miles of us, 
unable to penetrate further north. The season 
appears forward, and the ice much decayed ; but 
southerly winds prevail, retarding its disruption 
and removal. Captain Parker, of the ' Emma,' 
tells me he does not expect to make a north pas- 
sage this year, and as his experience extends over 
a period of at least thirty years, I give his reason ; 
it is simply this, — that as during the months of 
February, March, and April northerly winds pre- 
vailed to an unusual degree, therefore southerly 
winds may novv^ be expected to continue ; if he 
prove a prophet, it will be to our serious hinder- 
ance at this critical season. Governor Fliescher 
says the winter has been mild ; there has been 
but little wind, and that chiefly from the south- 
ward. 

4:th June. — We have received much kindness 
from our friends Captains Parker and J. Simpson, 
as well as from others of the whaling fleet ; the 
former has generously supplied us with many 
things we were rather short of, not only in ship's 
10* H 



114 KINDNESS OP THE WHALERS. Chap. VH. 

stores, but provisions and coals, and in return I 
have of course furnished him with a receipt for 
his owners. Captain Simpson has most hand- 
somely presented the ' Fox ' with a sail and 3'ards, 
which, after some slight alterations, Avill enable us 
to add a main topsail to our spread of canvas. 
For the two days we lay at the iceberg, alongside 
of the ' Emma,' I made furious attacks upon Cap- 
tain Parker's beefsteaks and porter; we amply 
availed ourselves of his hearty welcome. By the 
arrival of the fine steam whaler * Tay,' from Scot- 
land, we have received papers up to 17th April. 

This morning we slowly steamed away from 
Upemivik, threading our way betwixt islands, and 
ice, for about 30 miles, and now await further ice 
movement before it will be possible to proceed. 

These are called the Woman Islands, so named 
by the celebrated Arctic explorer John Davis, 
who visited them in Queen Elizabeth's reign ; he 
found here only a few old women, their frightened 
lords and more active juniors having effected their 
escape. 

Upon one of these islands a stone was picked 
up some 30 years ago, bearing a Runic inscrip- 
tion ; it was sent home to Copenhagen as a most 
interesting relic of the early Scandinavian voya- 
gers ; but nothing was on it except the names of 
those men "who cleared this place" (or formed 
a settlement), and the date, 1135. In all proba- 
bility their sojourn was extremely short, perhaps 



June, 1858. DANISH ESTABLISHMENTS. US j 

I 

only for a single summer. The Esquimaux did | 
not make their appearance for nearly two centu- ^ 
ries later. | 
After Egede's settlement at Godhaab in 1721, I 
the Danish trading establishments gradually ex- ' 
tended along the coast, and Upernivik was one of 
them; but it appears to have been soon aban- ;; 
doned. During Napoleon's wars all the Danish ; 
posts were withdrawn, as the British fleet effect- I 
ually cut off communication with Europe ; but i 
after peace was restored in 1815, the trading j 
posts were again resorted to, and a new settle- 
ment formed near the ruins of the old one at ^ 
Upernivik ; it enjoys pre-eminence as the most i 
northern abode of civilized man. . 



116 THE 'FOX' NEAKLY WRECKED. Cuap. VIIL 



CHAPTER Vm. 

* Fox ' nearly wrecked — Afloat, and push ahead — Arctic hairbreadth 
escapes — Nearly caught in the pack — Shooting little auks — The 
Arctic Highlanders — Cape York — Crimson snow — Struggling to 
the westward — Keach the West-land — Off the entrance of Lancaster 
Sound. 

June Wi. — Yesterday morning we passed close 
outside Buchan Island ; it is small but lofty, its 
north side is almost precipitous, yet notwithstand- 
ing this strong indication of deep water, a reef of 
rocks lies about a mile off it. I happened to be 
aloft with the look-out-man at half-past eight 
o'clock as we were steaming through a narrow lead 
in the ice, when I saw a rock close ahead ; it was 
capped with ice, therefore was hardly distinguish- 
able from the floatino- masses around ; the eiifrines 
were stopped and reversed, but there was neither 
time nor room to avoid the reef, which now ex- 
tended on each side of us, and upon which the 
ship's bow stuck fast whilst her stern remained in 
36 feet water; the tide had just commenced to 
fall, and all our efforts to haul off from the rocks 
were ineffectual. The lloes lay within 30 j^ards 
of us upon each side. I feared their drifting 
down upon the ship and turning her over \ but 




:"'! i"i' IF 'lll^IlJ'llH'^I'"I ' I limn' 'wnn , in liiwriniiWiiiiMrinmi- 




June, 1858. THE 'EOX' NEAELY WRECKED. 117 

fortunately it was perfectly calm, and as the tide 
fell, points of the reef held them fast. The ship 
continued to fall over to starboard ; at dead low 
water her inclination was 35°; the water covered 
the starboard gunwale from the mainmast aft, and 
reached almost up to the after hatchway ; at this 
time the slightest shake must have caused her to 
fall over upon her side, when she would have in- 
stantly filled and sunk. The dogs, after repeated 
ineffectual attempts to lie upon the deck, quietly 
coiled themselves up upon such parts of the lee 
gunwale as remained above water and went to 
sleep. 

To me the moments seemed lengthened out 
beyond anything I could have imagined ; but at 
length the water began to rise, and the ship 
to resume her upright position. Boats, anchors, 
hawsers, etc., were got on board again with the 
utmost alacrity, and the ship floated off unhurt 
after having been eleven hours upon the reef. 
We had grounded during the day tide and were 
floated off by the night tide, which upon this 
coast occasions a much greater rise and fall, — - so 
far we were favored, but the poor little ^Fox' 
had a very narrow escape ; as for ourselves, there 
was not the slightest cause for apprehension, 
three steam whalers being within signal distance. 

To-day we are steaming along after the three 
vessels which passed us last evening and disap- 
peared round Cape Shackleton during the night. 



118 AFLOAT, AND PUSH AHEAD. Chap. VIII. 

The contrast between our prospects yesterday 
and to-day fills one with delight, — to be afloat 
and advancing unobstructedly once more is in- 
deed charminor. 

11//^. — On the afternoon of the 8th we joined 
the steamers ' Tay/ Captain Deuchars ; ' Chase,' 
Captain Gravill, sen. ; and ' Diana/ Gravill, jun. 
After repeated ice-detentions, we have reached 
Duck Island. Captain Deuchars says there is 
every prospect of an early north passage ; we 
have had several conversations about the Pond's 
Bay natives, and their reports of ships, wrecks, 
and Europeans. Tiiere appears to be not only 
great difficulty, but also uncertainty, in arriving 
at their meaning ; to form an idea of the time 
elapsed since an event, or the distance to the 
spot where it occurred, is a still harder task. I 
look forward to our visit at Pond's Bay with 
greatly increased interest. 

In August, 1855, when Captain Deuchars was 
crossing through the middle ice, in latitude 70°, 
he found part of a steamer's topmast embedded 
in heavy ice ; he also saw the moulded form of a 
ship's side, and thinks the latter must have sunk ; 
the portion of the topmast visible was sawed off 
and taken to England. It is most probable that 
the vessel was either H.M.S. ' Intrepid ' or * Pio- 
neer,' as two months later, and 250 miles further 
south, the ' Resolute' was picked up. About two 
or three years ago. Captain Deuchars lost his 



June, 1858, ARCTIC HAIRBREADTH ESCAPES. 119 

ship '^Princess Charlotte/ in Melville Bay. It 
was a beautiful morning ; they had almost reached 
the North Water, and were anticipating a very 
successful voyage ; the steward had just reported 
breakfast ready, when Captain Deuchars, seeing 
the floes closing together ahead of the ship, re- 
mamed on deck to see her pass safely between 
them, but they closed too quickly; the vessel 
wa& almost through, when the points of ice caught 
her sides abreast of the mizenmast, and, passing 
through, held the wreck up for a few minutes, 
barely long enough for the crew to escape and 
save their boats ! Poor Deuchars thus suddenly 
lost his breakfast and his ship ; within ten minutes 
her royal yards disappeared beneath the surface. 
How closely danger besets the Arctic cruiser, yet 
how insidiously ; everything looks so bright, so 
calm, so still, that it requires positive experience 
to convince one that ice only a very few inches, 
perhaps only three or four inches, ahove tvater, per- 
fectly level, and moving extremely slow, could 
possibly endanger a strong vessel ! The ' Prin- 
cess Charlotte ' was a very fine, strong ship, and 
her captain one of the most experienced Arctic 
seamen. He now commands the finest whaler in 
the fleet. 

\Wi. — "We have only advanced a few miles to 
the northward. The steamer ' Innuit ' has joined 
our small steam squadron. Captain Sutter left 
Scotland only a month ago : he has very kindly 



120 SUPPLY OF PROVISIONS. Chap. VTU. 

and promptly sent us a present of newspapers 
and potatoes. Captain Deuchars has also been 
good enough to supply us with some potatoes 
and porter, perhaps the most serviceable present 
he could have made us after our long subsistence 
upon salt and preserved meats, 

lOik — Once more alone in Melville Bay. 
The ' Innuit ' and ' Chase ' steamed much too 
fast for us, and the last of the four vessels, the 
* Tay,' parted from us in a thick fog yesterday. 
We have come close alono; the edo-e of the fixed 
ice, passing about six miles outside of the Sabine 
Islands, and are advancing as opportunities offer. 
This morning the man wdio was stationed to 
Avatcli a nip about a quarter of a mile ahead of 
the ship, came running back, pursued by three 
bears — a mother with her half-grown cubs. I 
suppose they followed him chiefly because he ran 
from them ; and at all events the}^ were very 
close up before he reached the ship. Another 
bear was seen about the same time, but none of 
them came within shot. Rotchies (or little auks) 
are very abundant. Seals are occasionally shot 
I ate some boiled seal to-day, and found it good : 
this is the first time I have eaten positive bUibhcr ; 
all scruples respecting it henceforth vanish. 

2bih. — The land-ice broke away inshore of the 
*Fox' on the 19th or 20th, and we found our- 
selves drifting southward amongst extensive fields 
of ice. Sad experience has already shown us how 



June, 1858. NEARLY CAUGHT IN THE PACK. 121 

absolutely powerless our small craft is under such 
circumstances. But after many attempts we re- 
gained the edge of the fast ice this morning, and 
steamed merrily along it towards Bushnan Island. 
When within a few miles a nip brought us to a 
standstill: here five or six icebergs lie encom-. 
passed by land-ice, and apparently aground -, one 
of them juts out and has caught the point of an 
immense field of ice. There is some slight move- 
ment in the latter, but not enough to let us pass 
through. 

Twelve or eighteen miles to the south there 
is a cluster of bergs, in all probability aground 
upon our "70 fathom bank" of last September. 
The ice-field appears to rest against them, as both 
to the east and west there is much clear water. 
Exactly at this spot Captain Penny was similarly 
detained by a nip in August, 1850. Although 
progress is denied to us at present, yet it is an un- 
speakable rehef to have got out of the drifting 
ice. 

I have passed very many anxious days in Mel- 
ville Bay, but hardly any of them weighed so 
heavily upon me as yesterday. There was the 
broad, clear land-water within a third of a mile of 
me, clear weather, and a fair breeze blowing. 
The intervening nip worked sufficiently with 
wind and tide to keep one in suspense ; it nearl?/ 
opened at high water, but closed again with the 
ebb tide. I thought of the week already spent 
11 



122 ARCTIC PERPLEXITIES. Chap. VHI. 

in struggling amongst drifting floes, and was 
haunted by visions of everything horrible — gales, 
ice-crushing, etc. Nor was it consoling to reflect 
that all the sailing ships as well as the steamers 
might have actually slipped past us. In fact, I 
must acknowledge that anxiety and weariness 
had worked me up into a state of burning impa- 
tience and of bitter chagrin at being so repeatr 
edly baflled in all my efforts by the varying yet 
continual perplexities of our position. The only 
difference in favor of our prospects over those of 
the past year consisted in our having arrived here 
two months earlier; but the importance of this 
difference is incalculable. 

The opportunities afforded by the delays to 
which we have been subjected were turned, how- 
ever, to some account. Nearly one thousand 
rotchies were shot ; they are excellent eating ; 
their average weight is four ounces and a half, 
but when prepared for the table they probably 
do not yield more than three ounces each, A 
young bear imprudently swam up to the ship, and 
was shot, — his skin fell to the sportsman, and car- 
case to the dogs. Several others have been seen: 
we watched one fellow surprise a seal upon the 
ice, and carry it about in his mouth as a cat does 
a mouse. 

27//i. — Lying fast to the ice off" the Crimson 
Cliffs of Sir John Eoss. Yesterday we succeed- 
ed in passing through the nip, and by evening 



'"1 



\ 




Esquimaux imitating animals to induce Europeans to approacli. 



June, 1858. THE ARCTIC HIGHLANDERS. 123 

reached Cape York. Seeing natives running out 
upon the land-ice, the ship was made fast for an 
hour in order to communicate with them. A 
party of eight men came on board : they imme- 
diately recognised Petersen, for they lived at Etah 
in Smith's Sound when he was there in the Amer- 
ican expedition. They asked for Dr. Kane, and 
told us Hans was married and living in Whale 
Sound. They all said he was most anxious to re- 
turn to Greenland, but had neither sledge-dogs 
nor kayak; hunger had compelled him to eat the 
sealskin which covered the framework of the lat- 
ter. Petersen gave them messages for Hans from 
his Greenland friends, and advice that he should 
fix his residence here, where he might see the 
whalers and perhaps be taken back to Greenland. 
The natives did not seem to be badly off for any- 
thing except dogs, some distemper having carried 
off most of these indispensable animals. I was 
therefore unable to procure any from them. 
These people spent the winter here ; they seemed 
healthy, well-clad, and happy little fellows. One 
of them is brother-in-law to Erasmus York, who 
voluntarily came to England in the "^ Assistance* 
in 1851. This man is an angeJwk, or magician ; 
he has a still flatter face than the rest of his 
countrymen, but appears more thoughtful ar;d 
intelligent. 

Petersen pointed out to me a stout old fellow, 
with a tolerable sprinkhng of beard and mous- 



124 THE ARCTIC HIGHLANDERS. Chap. Vm. 

tache. This worthy perpetrated the only murder 
which has taken place for several 3'ears in the 
tribe : he disliked his victim and stood in need of 
his dogs, therefore he killed the owner and appro- 
priated his property ! Such motives and passions 
usually govern the " unsophisticated children of 
nature ;" yet, as savages, the Esquimaux may be 
considered exceedingly harmless. 

Of late 3'ears these Arctic Highlanders have be- 
come alarmed by the rapid diminution of their 
numbers through famine and disease, and have 
been less violent towards each other in their feuds 
and quarrels. 

The appearance of these men, as they danced 
and rolled about in frantic delight at our ap- 
proach, was wild and strange, and their costume 
uniform and picturesque. Their long, coarse, 
black hair hung loosely over the seal-skin frock 
which in its turn overlapped their loose shaggj 
bear-skin breeches, and these again came dowii 
over the tops of their seal-skin boots. Most o\ 
them carried a spear formed out of the horn of a 
narwhal. 

Having distributed presents of knives and 
needles, and explained to them that we did so be- 
cause they had behaved well to the white peo- 
ple, (as we learned from Dr. Kane's narrative of 
their treatment of him and his crew), we pursued 
our voyage, not doubting but that we should soon 
reach the JVo?ih Water, an extensive sea through 



July, 1858. DAMAGE EKOM ICE. 125 

which we could sail uninterruptedly to Pond's 
Bay. 

During the night we advanced through loose 
ice ; but fog and a rising S.E. gale delayed us, and 
to-day the pack has pressed in against the land, so 
that our wings are most unexpectedly clipped. A 
walrus was shot through the head by a Minie bul- 
let; none other will penetrate such a massive 
skull : unfortunately for my collection of speci- 
mens, and for the dogs, the animal sank. 

Id July. — For five days we have been almost 
beset amongst loose ice and grounded bergs ; the 
winds were generally from the S.E. and accom- 
panied by fog. To avoid being squeezed we had 
constantly to shift our position ; once we were 
caught and rather severely nipped ; the ship was 
heeled over about ten degrees and lifted a couple 
of feet : the ice was three feet thick, but broke 
readily under her weight. Unfortunately there 
was not time to unship the rudder, so it suffered 
very severely. Upon a previous occasion the 
screw-shaft was bent and a portion of the screw 
broken off. 

Landed to obtain a good view of the sea in 
the offing ; from the hills we could see nothing 
but pack to seaward. There was no land ice ; 
we stepped out of the boat upon a narrow icefoot 
which fringed the coast ; immediately above it 
we trod over a velvet sward of soft bright green 
moss; the turf beneath was of considerable depth. 
11* 



126 ROTCniES AJSTD GULLS. Chap. Vm. 

Here and there under this noble range of cliffs, 
which are composed of primary rock, there exists 
much veo:etation for so hi2;h a latitude. From the 
fact of thick layers of turf descending quite down 
to the sea, it is evident that the land has been 
gradually sinking. Steep slopes of rocky debris, 
which screen the bases of the most precipitous 
cliffs, form secure nurseries for the little auk ; 
these localities were literally alive with them ; 
they popped in and out of every crevice, or sat 
in groups of dozens upon every large rock. I 
have nowhere seen such countless myriads of 
birds. The rotchie, or little auk, lays its single Qg^ 
upon the bare rock, far within a crevice beyond 
the reach of fox, owl, or burgomaster gull. We 
shot a couple of hundred during our short stay on 
shore, and, by removing the stones, gathered sev- 
eral dozen of their eggs. 

The huge predatory gulls, long ago named 
" Burgomasters " by Dutch seamen (because they 
lord it over then- neighbors, and appropriate every 
thing good to themselves), have estabUshed them- 
selves in the cliffs, where their nests are gener- 
ally inaccessible : we were a month too late for 
their eggs; the young birds were as large as 
spring chickens. Of course we obtained speci- 
mens of the red snow, but had to seek rather dili- 
gently for it ; its color was a dirty red, very like 
the stain of port wine : very few patches of it 
were found. 



July, 1858. FREE FROM THE ICE. 127 

Last night a westerly wind blew freshly and 
dispersed the ice outside of us, so much so that 
this evening we have got out into almost clear 
water. Farewell Greenland ! — hurrah for the 
west! 

t>th. — After getting free from the ice off the 
Crimson Cliffs, we soon lost sight of the last frag- 
ment, and steered for Pond's Bay. And now we 
all set to work in zealous haste to write our last 
lette-^s for England, by the whalers, which we 
hoped soon to meet there. 

After running 60 miles the ice re-appeared, and 
we sailed through a vast deal of it, but it became 
more closely packed, and a thick fog detained us 
for a day. 

When the weather became clear, the main 
pack was seen to the W., S., and S.E. ; in the hope 
of rounding its northern extreme we ran along it 
to the N.W. To-day it has led us to the N. and 
N.E., so that this evening Wolstenholme Sound is 
in sight. To the N. the pack appears impenetra- 
ble, and there is a strong ice-bhnk over it. All 
the ice we have lately sailed through is loose, and 
much decayed; it seems but recently to have 
broken away from the land, is not water-washed, 
neither has it been exposed to a swell, the frac- 
tured edges remaining sharp. 

^th. — Midnight. Last evening I persevered to 
the N. until every hope of progress in that direc- 
tion vanished. To the W. the pack appeared tol- 



128 ICE CLOSING AGAIN. Chap. VIIL 

eraloly loose ; the wind was fresh at E.S.E., so I 
determined once more to push into it, and en- 
deavor to battle our way through; I hoped it 
would prove to be merely a belt of 30 or 40 miles 
in width. We found the ice to lie for the most 
part in streams at right angles to the wind, and 
therefore much more open than it had appeared : 
there was seldom any difficulty in winding through 
it fi'om one water space to another. The wind 
greatly increased, bringing much rain, but for- 
tunately no fog ; — the dread of this hung over 
me like a nightmare, — our progress depended 
upon the vigilance of the look-out kept in the 
crow's-nest. By noon we had made good 60 
miles. Throughout the day the wind has gradu- 
ally moderated : the rain gave place to snow, 
which in its turn was succeeded by mist. The 
evening was fine eventually and clear ; but still 
we find the ice is all around. Just before mid- 
night the termination of our lead was discovered, 
whilst the ice through which we had passed was 
closing together, and a dense fog came rolling 
down. Under these circumstances the ship was 
made fast as near to the nip as safety permitted, 
to await some favorable change. 

10//^. — All the 7th we remained in our small 
basin, there being no outlet from it, and but little 
water anywhere visible. To pass away the dull 
hours and get rid of unwelcome reflections upon 
the similarity of our present position and that in 



July, 1858. STEUGGLING TO THE WESTWAED. 129 

August last^ I commenced an attack upon all the 
feathered denizens of the pack — they seemed so 
provokingly contented with it — but they soon 
became wary, and deserted our vicinity, so I shot 
only a dozen fulmar petrels, three ivory gulls, two 
looms,* and a Lestris parasiticus ; some of them 
were useful as specimens, and such as were not 
destined for our table were given to the dogs. 
Although Cobourg Island was 45 miles distant 
from us, its lofty rounded outlines were very 
distinct, and much covered with snow. On the 
8th we squeezed through nips for 4 or 5 miles, 
and on the 9th, reaching a large space of water, 
steamed towards Cobourg Island until again 
stopped by the pack at an early hour this morn- 
ing, when within 5 or 6 leagues of it. 

This evening we are endeavoring to steam in 
towards the West-land, and fancy we can trace 
with the crow's-nest telescope a practicable route 
through the intervening ice-mazes to a faint streak 
of water along the shore. This sort of navigation 
is not only anxious, but wearying. To me it 
seems as if several months instead of only eight 
days had elapsed since we left Cape York. We 
are constantly wondering what our whaUng friends 
are about, and where they are ? 

lUh. — The faint streak of water seen on the 
night of the 10th proved to be an extensive sheet 

* These birds are called willocks at home ; they are the " Uria Brunni- 
chii" of naturalists. 

I 



130 VISIT OF NATIVES. Cnxp. VIII. 

to leeward of Cobourg Island. We reached it 
next morning. Jones' Sound appeared open, and 
a slight swell reached us from it, but all along the 
shore there was close pack. Although but little 
water was visible to the southward, we persevered 
in that direction, and, as the ice was rapidly mov- 
ing offshore under the combined influence of wind 
and tide, we were only occasionally detained. 

Two hundred and forty-two years ago — to a 
day, I believe — William Baffin sailed without 
hindrance along this coast and discovered Lancasj- 
ter Sound. What a very different season he must 
have experienced ! 

Passing near Cape Horsburgh we approached 
De Eos Islet at midnight. The air being very 
calm, and still, the shouting of some natives was 
heard, although we could scarcely distinguish them 
upon the land-ice. The ship was made fast, and 
the shouting party, consisting of three men, three 
women, and two children, eagerly came on board. 
Only four individuals remained on shore. 

The old chief Kal-lek is remarkable amongst 
Esquimaux for having a bald head. He inquired 
by name for his friend Captain Inglefield. These 
three families have sj)ent the last two years upon 
this coast, between Cape Horsburgh and Croker 
Bay. Their knowledge does not extend further 
in either direction. They are natives of more 
southern lands, and crossed the ice in Lancaster 
Sound with dog-sledges. Since the visit of the 



JtjLT. 1858. OFF LANCASTEE SOIINI>. 131 

* Phoenix' in '54 they have seen no ships, nor 
have any wrecks drifted upon their shores. They 
seemed very fat and healthy, but complained that 
all the reindeer had gone away, and asked if ive 
could tell where they went to ? Our presents of 
wood, knives, and needles were eagerly received. 
They assured us that Lancaster Sound was still 
frozen over, and that all the sea was covered with 
pack. After half an hour's delay we steamed on- 
ward, and on reaching a larger space of water our 
hopes (somewhat depressed by the native intel- 
ligence) began to revive. But we soon found that 
our clear water terminated near Cape Warrender. 
Lancaster Sound, although not frozen over, was 
crammed full of floes and icebergs. The wind in- 
creased to a strong gale from the east, and pressed 
in more ice. At length the ship was with difficulty 
made fast to a strip of land-ice a few miles west- 
ward of Point Osborn. Gradually the gale sub- 
sided, but not until the pack was close in against 
the land. The tides kept sweeping it to and fro, 
to our great discomfort. The land is composed of 
gneiss, and the gravelly shore is low. A few ducks 
only have been shot, and traces of reindeer and 
hares seen. Our Melville Bay friends, the rotchies, 
are very rare visitors upon this side of Baffin's 
Bay. 

Part of a ship's timber has been found upon the 
beach; it measures 7 inches by 8 inches, is of 
American oak, and, although sound, has long been 
exposed to the weather. 



132 OFF CAPE WARRENDER. Chap. IX. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Off Capo "Warrendcr — Sight the whalers again — Enter Pond's Bay — 
Communicate wiih Esquimaux — Ascend Pond's Inlet — Esquimaux 
information — Arctic summer abode — An Arctic village — No intel- 
ligence of Franklin's ships — Arctic trading — Geographical infor- 
mation of natives — Information of Rae's visit — Improvidence of 
Esquimaux — Travels of Esquimaux. 

IWi Juhj. — To borrow a whaling phrase, we are 
" dodging about in a hole of water " off Cape War- 
render. I recognize the little bay just to the 
west of the cape where Parry landed in Septem- 
ber, 1824. The " immense mass of snow and ice 
containing strata of mudd3'-looking soil " is there 
still, and, I should thinlt, had considerably in- 
creased. Here his party shot three reindeer out 
of a small herd. We have narrowly scanned the 
steep hill-sides with our glasses, but without dis- 
covering any such inducement to land. 

No cairns are visible upon Cape Warrender; 
the natives have probably removed them. Dense 
pack prevents us from aj^proaching Port Dundas 
or crossing to the southern shore. We all find 
these vexatious delays are by no means condu- 
cive to sleep. The mind is busy with a sort of 
magic-lantern representation of the past, the pre&- 



July, 1858. THE WHALERS AGAIN. 133 

ent, and the future, and resists for weary hours 
the necessary repose. 

Vlth. — Last night's calm has allowed the pack 
to expand so much, that to-day we have steamed 
through it until within three miles of the noble 
cliffs of Cape Hay ; and now we are drifting east- 
ward with the ice precisely as did the ' En- 
terprise ' and ' Investigator/ in September, '49. 
Upon that occasion we were set free off Pond's 
Bay. There is a very extensive loomery at Cape 
Hay ; we regret the circumstances which prevent 
our levying a tax upon it. Here, if anywhere, I 
expected to find a clear sea, but east winds have 
prevailed for twenty days out of the last twenty- 
five, and this accounts for the present state of the 
sea ; the next succession of west winds will prob- 
ably effect a prodigious clearance of ice. 

21^/. — The ' Tay ' was seen to-day in loose ice, 
and much further off the land. She gradually 
steamed through it to the southward, and by 
night was almost out of sight. Her appearance 
surprised us, as we supposed she must have 
reached Pond's Bay long ago. Ten hours' strug- 
gling with steam and sails at the most favorable 
intervals has only advanced us five miles. The 
weather is remarkably warm, bright, and pleas- 
ant. A very large bear came within 150 yards, 
and was shot by Petersen, the Minie bullet pass- 
ing through his body. This beast measured 
8 ft. 3 in. in length j his fat carcase was hoisted 
12 



134 OFF CAPE WALTER BATHURST. Cuap. IX. 

on board with great satisfliction, as our clogs' food 
was nearly expended. 

%Uh. — Last night the ice became slack enough 
to aflford some prospect of release, so we charged 
the nips vigorously, and steamed away through 
devious openings towards Cape Faushawe. For 
several hours but little progress was made, but 
this morning the ice became more open ; clear 
vvater was seen ahead, and reached by noon. Al- 
though it is calm I prefer waiting for a breeze to 
expending more coals. We are only ten miles 
from Possession Bay. The air is so very clear 
that the land appears quite close to us. All 
that is not mountainous is well cleared of snow. 
There is immense refraction. Only a single ice- 
berg in sight. The sea-water is light green, as 
remarked by Parry in 1819. 

IWi. — A vessel was seen yesterday morning ; 
the day continuing calm, we steamed through 
some loose ice, and joined her off Cape Walter 
Bathurst in the evening. It proved to be the 
^ Diana;' she parted from us on the 16th of June 
in Melville Bay, has everywhere been obstructed 
by the pack, as we have been, and only reached 
Cape Warrender three days before us. From 
thence to Possession Bay she met with no obstruc- 
tion. The subsequent east winds brought in all 
the ice which has so much retarded us. 

The ' Diana ' has already captured twelve 
whales. Taking the hint from Capt. Gravill, 



July, 1858. ENTER POND'S BAY. 135 

we have made fast to a loose floe, and are drift- 
ing very nearly a mile an hour to the south- 
ward along the edge of a very formidable land- 
ice, which is seven or eight miles broad. All 
to seaward of us is packed ice. The old whaling 
seamen of the ^ Diana ' are astonished at the unu- 
sual and unaccountable abundance of ice which 
everywhere fills up Baffin's Bay. All the ' Dia- 
na's' steaming coals, her spare spars, wood and 
even a boat, have been burnt in the protracted 
struggle through the middle ice. 

Iltli. — After putting our letter-bag on board 
the ^ Diana' this morning we steamed on for 
Pond's Bay, and at noon made fast near But- 
ton Point to the land-ice, which still extends 
across it. 

For four hours Petersen and I have been bar- 
gaining with an old woman and a boy, not for the 
sake of their seal-skins, but in order to keep them 
in good humor whilst we extracted information 
from them. They said they knew nothing of 
ships or white people ever having been within 
this inlet, nor of any wrecked ships. They knew 
of the depot of provisions left at Navy Board 
Inlet by the ' North Star,' but had none of them. 
The woman has traced on paper the shores of 
the inlet as far as her knowledge extends, and has 
given me the name of every point. She says the 
ice will break up with the first fresh wind. These 
two individuals are alone here. They remained 



136 COM^IUNICATE WITH ESQUIMAUX. Chap. H. 

on purpose to barter with the whalers, and can- 
not now rejoin their friends, who are only 25 
miles up the inlet, because the ice is unsafe to 
travel over and the land precipitous and imprac- 
ticable. 

This afternoon the ' Tay ' stood in towards us, 
and Captain Deuchars kindly sent his boat on 
board with an offer to take charge of our letters. 
The ' Tay ' reached this coast only a few days ago, 
having met with the same difficulties which we 
experienced. The ^ Innuit ' was last seen nearly 
a month ao;o beset off Jones' Sound. The re- 
maining steamer, the ^ Chase,' has not been seen 
or heard of 

2Wi. — The old woman's denial of all knowl- 
edge of the wrecks or cast-away men was very 
unsatisfactory. I determined to visit her coun- 
trymen at their summer village of KaparOktolik, 
which she described as being only a short day^s 
journey up the inlet. 

Petersen and one man accompanied me. "We 
started yesterday morning with a sledge and a Hal- 
kett boat. Although the ice over which we pur- 
posed travelling broke away from the land soon 
after setting out, yet we managed to get half way 
to the village before encamping. This morning 
we learnt the truth of the old woman's account. 
A range of precipitous cliffs rising from the sea 
cut us off by land from KaparOktolik, so we were 
obliged to return to the ship. Our walk afforded 



July, 1858. EXAMINE NATIVE CACHES. 137 

the opportunity of examining some native en- 
campments and caches. We found innumerable 
scraps of seal-skins, bird-skins, walrus and other 
bones, whalebone, blubber, and a small sledge. 
The latter was very old, and composed of pieces 
of wood and of large bones ingeniously secured to- 
gether with strips of whalebone. Five preserved- 
meat tins were found ; some of them retaining 
their original coating of red paint. Doubtless 
these were part of the spoils from Navy Board 
Inlet depot. The total absence of fresh wood or 
iron was strongly in favor of the old woman's ve- 
racity. Since yesterday, ice, about 16 miles in 
extent, has broken up in the inlet, and is drifting 
out into Baf&n's Bay. 

During my absence our shooting parties have 
twice visited a loomery upon Cape Graham Moore, 
and each time have brought on board 300 looms. 
Yery few birds and no other animals were seen 
during our walk over the rich mossy slopes to-day. 
I saw a pair of Canadian brown cranes, the first 
of the species I have ever seen so far north, 
though Sir Kobert M'Clure found them, I know, 
on Bank's Land. 

The lands enjoying a southern aspect, even to 
the summits of hills 700 or 800 feet in height, 
were tinged with green ; but these hills were pro- 
tected by a still loftier range to the north. Upon 
many well-sheltered slopes we found much rich 
grass. All the little plants were in full flower j 
12* 



138 ASCEND POND'S INLET. Chap. IX. 

some of til em familiar to us at home, such as the 
buttercup, sorrel, and dandelion. I have never 
found the latter to the north of G9^ before. 

The old woman is much less excited to-day; 
she says there was a wreck upon the coast when 
she was a little girl ; it lies a day and a half's 
journey, about 45 miles, to the north ; and came 
there without masts and very much crushed ; the 
little which now remains is almost buried in the 
sand. A piece of this wreck was found near her 
abode, — she has neither hut nor tent, but a sort of 
lair constructed of a few stones and a seal-skin 
spread over them, so that she can crawl under- 
neath. This fragment is part of a floor timber, 
English oak, Ta inches thick j it has been brought 
on board. 

30^/e. — A gale of wind and deluge of rain has 
detained the ship until this evening ; we are now 
steaming up the inlet, having the old lady and 
the boy on board as our pilots ; they are delighted 
at the prospect of rejoining their friends, from 
whom they were effectually cut off until the re- 
turn of winter should freeze a safe pathway for 
them ; they had, however, abundance of looms 
stored up en cdcJie for their subsistence. She has 
drawn me another chart, much more neatly than 
the former, but so like it as to prove that her 
geographical knowledge, and not her powers of 
invention, have been taxed. She is a widow ; her 
daughter is married, and hves at a place called 



Aug. 1858. ESQUIMAUX IKFOKMATION. 139 

Igloolik, which is six or seven days' journey from 
here, — three days up the inlet, then about three 
days overland to the southward, and then a day 
over the ice. 

Thinking it not quite impossible that this Ig- 
loolik might be the place where Parry wintered 
in 1822-3, 1 told Petersen to ask whether ships 
had ever been there ? She answered, "Yes, a ship 
stopped there all one winter; but it is a long time 
ago." All she could distinctly recollect having 
been told about it was, that one of the crew died, 
and was buried there, and his name was Al-lah 
or El-leh. On referring to Parry's ^ Narrative,' I 
found that the ice-mate, Mr. Elder, died at Igloo- 
lik ! This is a very remarkable confirmation of 
the locality, — ^for there are several places called 
Igloolik. She also told us it was an island, and 
near a strait between two seas. The Esquimaux 
take considerable pains to learn, and remember 
names ; this woman knows the names of several 
of the whaling captains, and the old chief at De 
Ros Islet remembered Captain Inglefield's name, 
and tried hard to pronounce mine. 

She now told us of another wreck upon the 
coast, but many days' journey to the south of 
Pond's Bay ; it came there before her first child 
was born. Her age is not less than forty-five. 

August 4dJi. — Our Esquimaux friends have de- 
parted from us with every demonstration of friend- 
ship, to return to their village. We have had 



140 TOOLS USED BY THE ESQUIMAUX. Chap. IX. 

free commimication with them for four da^'s — 
not only through Mr. Petersen, but also through 
our two Greenlanclers; the result is, that they 
have no knowledge whatever of either of the 
missing or the abandoned searching ships. Nei- 
ther Avrecked people nor wrecked ships have 
reached their shores. They seemed to be much 
in want of wood ; most of what they have con- 
sists of staves of casks, probably from the Navy 
Board Inlet depot. 

In their bartering with us, saws were most 
eagerly sought for in exchange for narwhal's 
horns ; they are used by them in cutting up the 
long strips of the bones of whales with which 
they shoe the runners of their sledges, also the 
ivory and bone used to protect the more exposed 
parts of their kayaks and the edges of their pad- 
dles from the ice. 

Files were also in great demand, and I found 
were required to convert pieces of iron-hooji into 
arrow and spear heads. If any suspicion existed 
of their having a secret supply of wood such as a 
wreck or even a boat would afford, it was removed 
by their refusing to barter the most trifling things 
for axes or hatchets. 

But I must relate the events of the last few 
days as they occurred. When 17 miles within 
the inlet we reached the unbroken ice and made 
the ship fast. Here the strait — originally named 
Pond's Bai/, and more recently Eclipse /Sound — 




T^^'^imf?''i:'fr-^^-^'\i' !"■ '^^"'^ II 



Aug. 1858. ARCTIC SUMMER ABODES. 141 

appears to be most contracted, its width not ex- 
ceeding 7 or 8 miles. Both its shores are very 
bold and lofty, often forming noble precipices. 
TJie prevailing rock is grey gneiss, generally dip- 
ping at an angle of 35° to the west. 

Early on the 1st of August I set out for the na- 
tive village with Hob son, Petersen, two men, and 
the two natives from Button Point. Eight miles 
of wet and weary ice-travelling, which occupied 
as many hours, terminated our journey ; the sur- 
face of the ice was everywhere deeply channelled 
and abundantly flooded by the summer's thaw ; 
we were almost constanly launching our small 
boat over the slippery ridges which separated 
pools or channellings through which it was gener- 
ally necessary to wade. 

After toiling round the base of a precipice, we 
came rather suddenly in view of a small semicircu- 
lar bay ; the cliffs on either side were 800 or 900 
feet high, remarkably forbidding and desolate ; the 
mouth of a valley or wide mountain gorge opens 
out into its head. Here, in the depth of the bay, 
upon a low flat strip of laud, stood seven tents, — 
the summer village of Kaparok-to-lik. I never 
saw a locality naore characteristic of the Esqui- 
maux than that which they have here selected for 
their abode ; it is widely picturesque in the true 
Arctic application of the term. 

Although August had arrived, and the summer 
had been a warm one, the bay was still frozen 



142 AN ARCTIC VILLAGE. Chap. IX. 

over ; and if there was an ice-covered sea in front, 
there was also abundance of ice-covered land in the 
rear — a glacier occupied the whole valley behind 
and to within 300 yards of the chosen spot ! 

The glacier's height appeared to be from 150 
to 200 feet ; its sea-face extending across the 
valley, — a probable width of 300 or 400 3-ards, — 
was quite perpendicular, and fully 100 feet high. 
All last winter's snow had thawed away from off 
it and exposed a surface of mud and stones, fis- 
sured by innumerable small rivulets, which threw 
themselves over the glacier cliffs in pretty cas- 
cades, or shot far out in strong jets from their 
deeply serried channels in its face ; whilst other 
streamlets near the base burst out throufj:h sub- 
glacial tunnels of their own forming. 

What a strange people to confine themselves to 
such a mere strip of beach ! Upon each side they 
have towering rocky hills rising so abruptly from 
the sea, that to pass along their bases or ascend 
over their summits, is equally impossible ; whilst 
a threatening glacier immediately behind, bears 
onward a sufficient amount of rock and earth from 
the mountains whence it issues, to convince even 
the unreflectins; sava2;e of its iDrosrressive motion. 

The land is devoid of game, although lemmings 
and ermines are tolerably numerous ; it only sup- 
plies the moss which the natives burn with blub- 
ber in their lamps, and the dry grass which they 
put in their boots ; even the soft stone, lajm ollor 



Aug. 1858. AN AECTIC VILLAGE. 143 

m, out of which their lamps and cooking vessels 
are made and the iron pyrites" with which they 
strike fire, are obtained by barter from the people 
inhabiting the land to the .west of Navy Board 
Inlet. But the sea compensates for every defi- 
ciency. The assembled population amounted to 
only 25 souls : 9 men, the rest women and chil- 
dren. 

All of them evinced extreme delight at seeing 
us ; as we approached the huts the w^omen and 
children held up their arms in the air and shout- 
ed "Pnietay" (give me), incessantly; the men 
were more quiet and dignified, yet lost no oppor- 
tunity, either when we declined to barter, or when 
they had performed any little service, to repeat 
"Pilletay" in a beseeching tone of voice. 

We walked everywhere about the tents and 
entered some of them, carefully examining every 
chip or piece of metal ; our visit was quite unex- 
pected. They had only two sledges ; both were 
made of 2iinch oak-planks, devoid of bolt-holes 
or treenails, and having but very few nail-holes. 
These sledges had evidently been constructed for 
several years, the parts not exposed to friction 
were covered with green fungus: one of them 
measured 14 feet long, the other about 9 feet ; 
we were told the wood came from a wreck to the 
southward of Pond's Bay. Most of the sledge 
crossbars were ordinary staves of casks. Amongst 
the poles and large bones which supported the 



144 NO INTELLIGENCE OF FRANKLIN. Chap. IX. 

tents we noticed a painted fir oar. Some pieces of 
iron-hoop and a few preserved-meat tins — one 
of which was stamped " Goldner," — completed 
their stock of European articles. 

Petersen questioned all the men separately as to 
their knowledge of ships or wrecks ; but their ac- 
counts only served to confirm the old woman's 
story. None of them had ever heard of ships or 
wrecks anywhere to the westward. Both individu- 
ally and collectively we got them to draw charts 
of the various coasts known to them, and to mark 
upon them the positions of the wrecks. The two 
chiefs, Noo-luk and A-wah-lah, soon made them- 
selves known to me, and, when we desired to go 
to sleej), sent away the people who were eagerly 
pressing round our tent. All these natives were 
better-looking, cleaner, and more robust than I 
expected to find them. 

A-wah-lah has been to Igloolik; one of his 
wives, for each chief has iwo, has a brother living 
there. I spread a large roll of paper upon a rock, 
and got him to draw the route overland, and also 
round by the coast to it; this novel proceeding 
attracted the whole population about us ; A-\viXh- 
lah constantly referred to others when his memory 
failed him ; at length it was completed to the sat- 
isfaction of all parties.. When I gave him the 
knife I had promised as his reward, and added 
another for his wives, he sprang up on the rock, 
flourished the knives in his hands, shouted, and 



Aug. 1858. AGAIN IN DANGER. 145 

danced with extravagant demonstrations of joy. 
He is a very fine specimen of his race, powerful, 
impulsive, full of energy and animal spirits, and 
moreover an admirable mimic. The men were all 
about the same height, 5 feet 5 in. ; they eagerly 
answered our questions, and imparted to us all , 
the geographical knowledge, although at first they 
hesitated when we asked them about Navy Board 
Inlet, in consequence of the depot placed there 
having been plundered ; but we soon found that 
they were easily tired under cross-examination, 
and often said they knew no more ; it was neces- 
sary to humor them. 

According to their account the dep6t was dis- 
covered and robbed by people living further west. 
This is probably true, as so few relics were to be 
seen here, which would not be the case if such 
active fellows as A-wah-lah and Noo-luk had re- 
ceived the first information of its proximity. These 
people of Kaparoktolik are the only inhabitants 
of the land lying eastward of Navy Board Inlet, 
and live entirely upon its southern shore. In a 
similar manner, it is only the southern coast of 
the land to the west of Navy Board Inlet that is 
inhabited. After distributing presents to all the 
women and children, and making a few trifling 
purchases from the men, we returned next day to 
the ship. 

During my absence more ice had broken away, 
involving the ship and almost forcing her on shore. 
13 K 



146 GEOGRAPniCAL INTOKMATION. Chai-. IX. 

It required every exertion to save her. For two 
hours «ho continued in imminent danger, and was 
only saved by the warping and ice-blasting, by 
which at last she got clear of the drifting masses, 
fmir minutes only before these were crushed up 
as^ainst the rocks ! 

Four Esquimaux came off to the ship in their 
kayaks, bringing whalebone, narwhals' horns, etc., 
to barter. Next to handsaws and files, they at- 
tached the greatest value to knives and large 
needles. These men remained on board for nearly 
two days, and drew several charts for us. Noo- 
luk explained that seven or eight days' journey to 
the southward there are iwo wrecks a short day's 
journey apart. The southern is in an inlet or strait 
which contains several islands, but here his knowl- 
edge of the coast terminates. The man A-ra-neet 
said he visited these wrecks five winters ago. All 
of them agreed that it is a very long time since 
the wrecks arrived upon the coast ; and Noo-luk, 
who appears to be about forty-five years of age, 
showed us how tall he was at the time. 

In the ' Narrative of Parry's Second Voyage,' at 
p. 437, mention is made of the arrival at Igloolik 
of a sledge constructed of ship-timber and staves 
of casks; also of two ships that had been driven 
on shore, and the crews of which went away in 
boats. In August, 1821, nearly two 3'cars previ- 
ous to the arrival of this report through the Esqui- 
maux to Igloolik, the whalers ' Dexterity ' and 



Atra. 1858. OF NATIVES. 147 

' Aurora ' were wrecked upon the west coast of 
Davis' Strait, in lat. 72"", 70 or 80 miles southward 
of Pond's Bay. The old man, Ow-wang-noot, drew 
the coast-line northwards from Cape Graham 
Moore to Navy Board Inlet^ and pointed out the 
position of the northern wreck a few miles east of 
Cape Hay. Had it been conspicuous, we must 
have seen it when we slowly drifted along that 
coast. 

These people usually winter in snow-huts at 
Green Point, a mile or two within the northern 
entrance of Pond's Bay. They hunt the seal 
and narwhal, but when the sea becomes too 
open they retire to Kaparoktolik ; and when 
the remaining ice breaks up — usually about the 
middle of August — a further migration takes 
place across the inlet to the S.W., where reindeer 
abound, and large salmon are numerous in the 
rivers. Every winter they communicate with the 
Igloolik people. Two winters ago (1856-7) some 
people who lived far beyond Igloolik, in a country 
called A-ka-nee (probably the Ak-koo-lee of Par- 
ry), brought from there the information of white 
people having come in two boats, and passed a 
winter in snow-huts at a place called by the 
following names : — A-mee-lee-oke, A-wee-lik, Net- 
tee-lik. 

Our friends pointed to our whale-boat, and 
said the boats of the white people were like it, 
but larger. These whites had tents inside 



148 INFORJIATION OF EAE'S VISIT. Cuap. IX. 

their snow-huts j they killed and eat reindeer 
and narwhal, and smoked pipes ; they bought 
dresses from the natives ; none died ; in sum- 
mer they all went away, taking with them two 
natives, a father and his son. We could not 
ascertain the name of the white chief, nor the 
interval of time since they wintered amongst 
the Esquimaux, as our friends could not recol- 
lect these particulars.'^' 

The name of the locality, A-wee-lik (spelt as 
written down at the moment), may be consid- 
ered identical with "Ay-wee-lik," the name of 
the land about Repulse Bay in the chart of the 
Esquimaux woman, Iligliuk (Parry's ' Second Voy- 
age,' p. 197). 

We were of course greatlj^ surprised to find 
that Dr. Rae's visit to Repulse Bay was known to 
this distant tribe ; and also disappointed to find 
they had heard nothing of Franklin's Back-River 
parties through the same channel of communica- 
tion. They were anxiously and repeatedly ques- 
tioned, but evidently had not heard of any other 
white people to the westward, nor of their having 
perished there. 

Ow-wang-noot lived at Igloolik in his early 
days, and made a chart of the lands adjacent, 
but said he was so young at the time that '' it 
seemed like a dream to him." He was acquaint- 

* Dr. Rae wintered at Repulse Bay ia stone huts ia 184G-7. Again 
vyintered there iu snow huts ia 1853-4. 



Aug. 1858. BAKTEE WITH NATIVES. 149 

ed with Ee-noo-loo-apik, the Esquimaux who once 
accompanied Captain Penny to Aberdeen^ and 
told us he had died, lately I think, at a place 
to the southward called Kri-merk-su-malek, but 
that his sister still lives at Igloolik. 

Although they told us the Igloolik people 
were worse oif for wood than they were them- 
selves, yet it was evident that here also it is 
very scarce. We could not spare them light 
poles or oars such as they were most desirous to 
obtain for harpoon and lance staves and tent- 
poles ; and they would willingly have bartered 
their kayaks to us for rifles (having already ob- 
tained some from the whaling-ships), but that 
they had no other means of getting back to their 
homes, nor wood to make the light framework of 
others. 

They collect whalebone and narwhal's horns in 
sufficient quantity to carry on a small barter with 
the whalers. A-wah-lah showed us about thirty 
horns in his tent, and said he had many more at 
other stations. A few years ago, when first this 
bartering sprang up, an Esquimaux took such a 
fancy to a fiddle that he offered a large quantity 
of whalebone in exchange for it. The bargain 
was soon made, and subsequently this whale- 
bone was sold for upwards of a hundred pounds ! 
Each successive year, when the same ship re- 
turns to Pond's Bay, this native comes on board 
to visit his friends, and goes on shore with many 
13* 



150 TEMPTATIONS TO BARTER. Chap. IX. 

presents in remembrance of the memorable trans- 
action. It is much better for him thus to receive 
annual gifts than to have received a large quan- 
tity at first, as the improvidence of these men 
surpasses belief. 

Of the " rod of iron about four feet long, sup- 
posed to have been at one time galvanized," 
which Avas brought home in 1856 by Captain 
Patterson, and forwarded to the Admiralty, I 
could obtain no information. The natives were 
shown galvanized iron, and said they had never 
seen any before ; if their countrymen had any, 
it must have come from the whalers ; none like 
it was found in the wrecks. Rod-iron is very val- 
uable to Esquimaux for spears and lances, and 
narwhals' horns very tempting to the seamen, 
not only as valuable curiosities, but the ivory is 
worth half a crown a pound; and I have but 
little doubt that many of the things said to have 
been stolen by the natives were fraudulently bar- 
tered away by the sailors. That there Avas no 
galvanized iron on board any of the Govern- 
ment searching-ships, nor in the missing expedi- 
tion which sailed from Ena:land as fir back as 
1845, 1 am almost certain. But is it certain that 
this rod was galvanized ? The natives gave Cap- 
tain Patterson to understand that they got it from 
the wreck to the north. 

In July, 1854, Captain Deuchars was at Pond's 
Bay, and many natives visited his ship, coming 



Aug. 1858. TRAVELS OF ESQUIMAUX. 151 

over the ice on twelve or fourteen sleclo-es made 
of ship's planking. Now at this time Sir Edward 
Belcher's ships were still frozen up in Barrow 
Strait. My own impression is that the natives 
whom Captain Deuchars communicated with in 
1854 were visitors at Pond's Bay — certainly from 
the southward — and probably attracted by the 
barter recently grown up at that whaling rendez- 
vous. Having discovered the use of the saws 
obtained by barter from our whalers, they had 
successfully applied them to the stout planking 
of the old wrecks, which they could not have 
stripped off with any tools previously in their 
possession. 

That the various tribes, or rather groups of 
families, occasionally visit each other, sometimes 
for change of hunting-grounds, but more fre- 
quently for barter, is well known. Captain Par- 
ker told me that a native whom he had met one 
summer at Durbin Island, came on board his ship 
at Pond's Bay the following year. The distance 
between the two places, as travelled by this man 
in a single winter, is scarcely short of 500 miles; 
and the information given us of Rae's wintering 
at Eepulse Bay, information which must have 
travelled here in two winters, shows that these 
natives communicate at still greater distances. 

Did other wrecks exist nearer at hand, our 
Pond's Bay friends would be much better supplied 
with wood. If the Esquimaux knew of any with- 



152 TRAVELS OF ESQUIMAUX. Cn.v^ IX. 

in 300, 400, or even 500 miles, the Pond's Bay 
natives ^vould at least have heard of them, and 
could have had no reason for concealing it from 
US. I only regret that we had not the good for- 
tune to see more than a few natives, and but two 
sledges of ship's planking ; otherwise our own in- 
formation might have been more copious, and the 
origin of the fresh supply of planking decisively 
ascertained. 



Aug. 1858. LEAVE POND'S BAY. 153 



CHAPTER X. 

Leave Pond's Bay — A gale in Lancaster Sound — The Beechej' Island 
Depot — An Arctic monument — Reflections at Beecliey Island — Pro- 
ceed up BarroAv's Strait — Peel Sound — Port Leopold — Prince Regent's 
Inlet — Bellot Strait — Flood-tide from the west — Unsuccessful efforts — 
Fox's Hole — No water to the west — Precautionary measures — Fourth 
attempt to pass tlu'ough. 

Wi Aug. — Continued calms have delayed us. This 
evening we steamed from Pond's Bay northward, 
although our coals have been sadly reduced by 
the almost constant necessity for steam-power 
since leaving the Waigat. The three steam- 
whalers have gone southward ; none others have 
arrived. They appear to us to be leaving the 
whales behind them ; we saw many whilst up the 
straitj and at the edge of the remaining ice. The 
natives said they would remain as long as the ice 
remained, but when it all broke up they would 
return into Baffin's Bay and go southward; and 
that these animals arrive in early spring, and do 
not pass through the strait into any other *ea 
beyond. 

Monday evening, Wi. — On the night of the 6 th 
a pleasant, fair breeze sprang up, and enabled us 
to dispense with the engine. An immense bear 
was shot ; he measured 8 feet 7 inches in length, 



154 GALE IN LANCASTER SOUND. Cuap. X. 

and is destined for the museum of the Royal 
Dublm Society. On the 7th the wind gradually 
freshened and frustrated my intention of examin- 
ing the wreck spoken of near Cape Ilay ; at night 
it increased to a very heavy gale. Although pa.st 
Navy Board Inlet, very little ice had yet been 
met with. The weather, and fear of ice to lee- 
ward, obliged us to heave the vessel to, under 
main trysail and fore staysail. The squalls were 
extremely violent and seas unusually high. 

All Sunday, the 8th, the gale continued, al- 
though not with such extreme force ; the deep 
rolling of the ship, and moaning of the half- 
drowned dogs amidst the pelting sleet and rain, 
was anything but agreeable. Notwithstandiug 
that I had been up all the previous night, I felt 
too anxious to sleep ; the wind blew directly up 
Barrow Strait, drifting us about two miles an 
hour. Occasionally she drifted to leeward of 
masses of ice, reminding us that if any of the 
dense pack which covered this sea only three 
weeks ago remained to leeward of us, we must be 
rapidly setting down upon its weather edge. The 
only expedient in such a case is to endeavor to 
run into it — once well within its outer margin a 
ship is comparatively safe — the danger lies in the 
attempt to penetrate ; to escape out of the jDack 
afterwards is also a doubtful matter. 

In the evening we were glad to see the land, 
and find ourselves off the north shore near Cape 




Tlie 'Fox' ariviiig at Beeclioy Inland. 



Aug. 1858. BEECHY ISLAND DEPOT. 155 

Bulleiij for the violent motion of the ship and 
very weak horizontal magnetic force had ren- 
dered our compasses useless. This morning, the 
9th, the gale broke, and the sea began to subside 
rapidly ; by noon it was almost calm, but a thick 
gloom prevailed, ominous, it might be, of more 
mischief All along the land there is ice, but, 
broken up into harmless atoms. We have carried 
aTvay a maingaff and a jibstay, but have come re- 
markably well through such a gale with such tri- 
flinQ" damas:e. 

lltk. — Before noon to-day we anchored inside 
Cape Riley, and immediately commenced prepar- 
ations for embarking coals. I visited Beechy 
Island house, and found the door open; it must 
have been blown in by an easterly gale long ago, 
for much ice had accumulated immediately inside 
it. Most of the biscuit in bags was damaged, but 
every thing else was in perfect order. Upon the 
north and west sides of the house, where a wall 
had been constructed, there was a vast accumula- 
tion of ice, in which the lower tier of casks be- 
tween the two were embedded, and its surface 
thawed into pools. Neither casks nor walls should 
have been allowed to stand near the house. The 
southern and eastern sides were clear and perfect- 
ly dry. The ' Mary ' decked boat, and two 30-feet 
lifeboats, were in excellent order, and their paint 
appeared fresh, but oars and bare wood were 
bleached white. 



156 BEECHEY ISLAIsTD DEPOT. Chap. X. 

The gutta-percha boat was useless when left 
here, and remains in the same state. Two small 
sledge travelling boats were damaged ; one of them 
had been blown over and over along the beach 
mitil finally arrested by the other. The bears 
and foxes do not appear to have touched any 
thing. I have taken on board all letters left here 
for Frankhn's or Colhnson's expeditions and also 
a 20-feet sledge-boat for our own travelling pur- 
poses. 

Last night we steamed very close round Cape 
Hurd in a dense fog, and crept along the land as 
our only guide : we were thus led into Eigby Buy, 
and discovered a shoal off its entrance by ground- 
ing upon it. After a quarter of an hour we 
floated off unhurt. 

In lowering a boat to pursue a bear, Eobert 
Hampton fell overboard ; fortunately he could 
swim, and was very soon picked up, but the in- 
tense cold of the w^ater had almost paralj'zed his 
limbs. The bear was shot and taken on board. 

Sunda?/,lWi,^VM. — Our coaHng was complet- 
ed yesterday, and the ship brought over and an- 
chored off the house in Erebus and Terror Bay. 
A small proportion of provisions and winter cloth- 
ing has been embarked to complete our deficien- 
cies ; the ice has been scraped out of the house 
and its roof thoroughly repaired, a record de- 
posited, and door securely closed. 

I found lying at Godhavn a marble tablet 



Aug. 1858. AN ARCTIC MONUMENT. 157 

which had been sent out by Lady Franklin, in 
the American expedition of 1855 under Captain 
Hartstein, for the purpose of being erected at 
Beechey Island. Circumstances prevented the 
Americans executing this kindly service, and it 
fell to my lot to convey it to the site originally 
intended. The tablet was constructed in New 
York, under the direction of Mr. Grinnell, at the 
request of Lady Franklin, in order that the only 
opportunity which then offered of sending it to 
the Arctic regions might not be lost. I placed 
the monument upon the raised flagged square in 
the centre of which stands the cenotaph record- 
ing the names of those who perished in the Gov- 
ernment expedition under Sir Edward Belcher. 
Here also is placed a small tablet to the memory 
of Lieutenant Bellot. I could not have selected 
for Lady Franklin's memorial a more appropriate 
or conspicuous site. The inscription runs as fol- 
lows : — 

14 



158 THE DfSCEIPTION. Chju X. 

TO THE MEMORY OF 

FRANKLIN, 
CHOZIER, FITZJAMES, 

AND ALL THEIR 

GALLANT BROTHER OFFICERS AND FAITHFUL 

COMPANIONS WHO HAVE SUFFERED AND PERISHED 

IN THE CAUSE OP SCIENCE AND 

THE SERVICE OF THEIR COUNTRY. 

THIS TABLET 

IS ERECTED NEAR THE SPOT -WHERE 

THEY PASSED THEIR FIRST ARCTIC 

WINTER, AND WHENCE THEY ISSUED 

FORTH TO CONQUER DIFFICULTIES OR 

TO DIE. 

IT COMMEMORATES THE GRIEF OF THEIB 

ADMIRING COUNTRYMEN AND FRIENDS, 

AND THE ANGUISH, SUBDUED BY FAITH, 

OF HER WHO HAS LOST, IN THE HEROIC 

LEADER OP THE EXPEDITION, THE MOST 

DEVOTED AND AFFECTIONATE OF 

HUSBANDS. 

O 

" AND SO HE BRINGETH THEM UNTO THE 



HAVEN WHERE THEY WOULD BE. 
1855. 



, »' 



This stone has been entrusted to be affixed in its place by the Officers and Crew b( tha 
American Expedition, commanded by Lt. II. J. Ilartstein, in search of Dr. Kane and 
his Companions. 

This Tablet having been left at Disco by the 
American Expedition, which was unable to 
reach Becchcy Island, in lR."i5, was put on 
board the Discovery Yacht Fox. ami is now 
Bet up here by Captain M'Clintock, R.N., 
commanding the final expedition of search 
for ascertaining the fate of Sir John FranUin 
and his compouioos, 1863. 



Aug. 185S. REFLECTIONS AT BEECHEY ISLAND. 159 

We are now ready to proceed upon our voyage 
from Beechey Island, and there is no ice in sight ; 
but having worked ahnost unceasingly since our 
arrival up to the present hour, the men require a 
night's rest. Nearly forty tons of fuel have been 
embarked. 

The total absence of ice in Barrow Strait is 
astonishing. No less so are the changes and 
chances of this singular navigation. Twelve days 
later than this in 1850, when I belonged to Her 
Majesty's ship "^Assistance,' with considerable dif- 
ficulty we came within sight of Beechey Island ; 
a cairn on its summit attracted notice ; Captain 
Ommanney managed to land, and discovered the 
first traces of the missing expedition. Next day 
the United States schooner 'Rescue' arrived; the 
day after. Captain Penny joined us, and subse- 
quently Captain Austin, Sir John Ross, and Cap- 
tain Forsyth, — in all, ten vessels were assembled 
here. This day six years, when in command of 
the '• Intrepid,' we sailed from here for Melville 
Island in company with the ' Resolute.' Again I 
was here at this tiAe in 1854, — still frozen up, — 
in the ' North Star,' and doubts were entertained 
of the possibility of escape. 

To come down to a later period, it was this day 
fortnight only that I set out for the native village 
in Pond's Inlet, under the guidance of an old 
woman ; the trip was interesting, but we failed to 
obtain the slightest clue to the "whereabouts" of 



IGO CAPE nOTHAM. Ciiap. X 

the missing ships ; moreover, our own little vessel 
had a most providential escape from being crushed 
against the cliffs ; and this day week was spent in 
contending Avith a furious gale, during which the 
ship had nearly been driven to leeward and dashed 
to pieces by the sea-beaten pack. Yet these are 
only prelimmaries, — we are only noiv about to 
commence the interesting part of our voyage. It 
is to be hoped the poor ' Fox ' has many more 
lives to spare. 

Monday mgM,\Wi A\i(). — Sailed from Beechey 
Island this morning, and in the evening landed at 
Cape Hotham. A small depot of provisions and 
three boats were left there by former expeditions. 
Of the depot all has been destroyed with the ex- 
ception of two casks landed in 1850. The boats 
were sound, but several of their oars, which had 
been secured upright, w^ere found broken down 
by bears — those inquisitive animals having a 
decided antipathy to anything stuck up — stuck 
up things in general being, in this country, un- 
natural. Fragments of the depot and the broken 
oars were tossed about in e\^ry direction. Nu- 
merous records were found • to the most recent a 
few lines were added, stating that we had removed 
the two whale-boats — one to be left at Port 
Leopold, the other to replace our own crushed by 
the ice. 

Vltli. — Last night battUng against a strong foul 
wind with sea, in rain and fog. To-day much loose 



Aug. 1S58. PEOCEED DOWN PEEL STKAIT. ' 161 

ice is seen southward of Griffith's Island. The 
weather improved this afternoon, and we shot 
gallantly past Limestone Island, and are now 
steering down Peel Strait ; all of ns in a wild state 
of excitement — a mingling of anxious hopes and 
fears ! 

\Wi. — For 25 miles last evening we ran un- 
obstructedly down Peel Strait, but then came in 
sight of unbroken ice extending across it from 
shore to shore ! It was much decayed, and of one 
year's growth only ; yet as the strait continues to 
contract for 60 miles further, and it appeared to 
me to afford so little hope of becoming navigable 
in the short remainder of the season, I immedi- 
ately turned about for Bellot Strait, as affording 
a better prospect of a passage into the western 
sea discovered by Sir James Eoss from Four Eiver 
Point in 1849. Our disappointment at the inter- 
ruption of our progress was as sudden as it was 
severe. We did not linger in hope of a change, 
but steered out again into the broad waters of 
Barrow Strait. However, should Bellot Strait 
prove hopeless, I intend to return hither to make 
one more effort before the close of the season. 

We are now approaching Port Leopold, where 
it is necessary to stop for a few hours to examine 
the state of the steam launch, provisions and stores, 
left there in 1849, as adverse circumstances may 
oblige me to fall back upon it as a point of sup- 
port. 

14* L 



1G2 rORT LEOPOLD. Cuap. X. 

19//^. — At anchor in Port Leopold; it is per- 
fectly clear of ice ; we arrived here in the night. 
How astonishingly bare the land looks ; it is more 
barren than Beechey Island, whilst the rock con- 
tains far fewer fossils ! On this day nine years 
ago the harbor and sea continued covered with 
ice, and the ships (' Enterprise ' and ' Investigator ') 
were unable to escape. At some period since then 
the ice has been pressed in upon the low shingle 
point ; it has forced the launch up before it, and 
left her broadside on to the beach, with both bows 
stove in, and in want of considerable repairs, but 
the means are all at hand for executing them. 
We tried to haul her further up, but she was 
firmly imbedded and frozen into the ground. 
Many things appear to have been covered with 
the loose shingle, bags of coal and coke just ap- 
pearing through it scarcely above high-water mark. 
Amon2:st the missino: articles is the steam-en o-ine. 

Although the jflagstaff upon the summit of 
North East Cape is still standing, the one erected 
upon this point and almost the whole of the 
framing of the house lies prostrate. The pro- 
visions appeared to be sound, but were not gen- 
erally examined. The whale-boat we removed 
from Cape Hotham was landed here, and a record 
of our proceedings added to the many which have 
accumulated here during the last ten years. Some 
coke and a few things useful to us and merely 
decaying here were taken on board, and by 



Au«. iS5S. OFF FUEY POINT. 263 

evening we were again speeding onward with 
augmented resources, and the confidence inspired 
by a secure depot in our rear ; buoyed up more- 
over by the joyful anticipation of soon reaching 
the goal of our long-deferred hopes. 

20^/^. — Noon. Exactly off Fury Point. There 
is one large iceberg far off in the S.E. ; no other 
ice in sight ! I would have landed at Fury Beach 
to examine the remaining supplies there, but a 
snow shower prevented our distinguishing any- 
thing, and a strong tide carried us past before we 
were aware of it. 

WQfeel that the crisis of our voyage is near at 
hand. Does Bellot Strait really exist ? if so, is it 
free from ice ? 

A depot of provisions is being got ready to be 
landed, should it be practicable for us to push 
through and proceed to the southward. 

list. — On approaching Brentford Bay last 
evening packed ice was seen streaming out of 
it, also much ice in the S.E. The northern point 
of entrance was landed upon by Sir John Boss 
in 1829, and named Possession Point ; we rounded 
it closely, and could distinguish a few stones piled 
up upon a large rock near its highest part — this 
is his cairn. As vf e passed westward between the 
point and Browne's Island, through a channel a 
mile in width, a close pack was discovered a few 
miles ahead ; and it being past ten o'clock, and 
almost dark, the ship was anchored in a conven- 



164 DEPOT BAY. Chap. X. 

ient bay three or four miles witliin Po.s.session 
Point. Here our depot is to be landed, therefore 
we shall name this for the present Depot Bcuj ; a 
very narrow isthmus between its head and Haz- 
ard Inlet unites the low limestone peninsula, of 
which Possession Point is the extreme, to the 
mainland. 

To-day an unsparing use of steam and canvas 
forced the ship eight miles further west ; we were 
then about half-way through Bellot Strait! Its 
western capes are lofty bluffs, such as may be dis- 
tinguished fifty miles distant in clear weather ; be- 
tween them there was a clear broad channel, but 
five or six miles of close heavy pack intervened 

— the sole obstacle to our progress. Of course 
this pack will speedily disperse ; — it is no won- 
der that we should feel elated at such a glorious 
prosjDect, and content to bide our time in the 
security of Depot Bay. A feeling of tranquillity 

— of earnest, hearty satisfaction — has come over 
ns. There is no appearance amongst us of any- 
thing boastful ; we have all experienced too keenly 
the vicissitudes of Arctic voyaging to admit of 
such a feelmo;. 

At the turn of tide we perceived that we were 
being carried, together with the pack, back to the 
eastward ; every moment our velocity was in- 
creased, and presently we were dismayed at see- 
ing grounded ice near us, but were very quickly 
swept past it at the rate of nearly six miles an 



Aug. 1858. BELLOT STEAIT. 165 

hour, though within 200 ^^arcls of the rocks, and 
of instant destruction ! As soon as we possibly 
could we got clear of the packed ice, and left it 
to be wildly hurled about by various whirlpools 
and rushes of the tide, until finally carried out 
into Brentford Bay. The ice-masses were large, 
and dashed violently against each other, and the 
rocks lay at some distance ofi" the southern shore ; 
-we had a fortunate escape from such dangerous 
company. After anchoring again in Depot Bay, 
a large stock of provisions and a record of our 
proceedings were landed, as there seems every 
probability of advancing into the western sea in 
a very few days. 

The appearance of Bellot Strait is precisely 
that of a Greenland fiord ; it is about 20 miles 
long and scarcely a mile wide in the narrowest 
part, and there, within a quarter of a mile of the 
north shore the depth was ascertained to be 400 
feet. Its granitic shores are bold and lofty, with 
a very respectable sprinkling of vegetation for 
lat. 72°. Some of the hill-ranges rise to about 
1500 or 1600 feet above the sea. 

The low land eastward of Depot Bay is com- 
posed of limestone, destitute alike of fossils and 
vegetation. The granite commences upon the 
west shore of Depot Bay, and is at once bold and 
rugged. Many seals have been seen; a young 
bear was shot, and Walker took a photograph of 
him as he lay upon our deck, the dogs creeping 
near to lick up the blood. 



166 FLOOD TIDE FROM THE WEST. Ciiap. X. 

The great rapidity of the tides in Bellot Strait 
fully accounts for the spaces of open ^vater seen 
by Mr. Kennedy =•' when he travelled through, 
early in April. The strait runs very nearly east 
and west, but its eastern entrance is well masked 
by Long Island ; when half-way through both 
seas are visible. As in Greenland, the night tides 
are much higher than the day tides ; last night it 
was high Avater at about half-past eleven; as 
nearly as we can estimate, the tide runs through 
to the west, from two hours before high water 
imtil four hours after it ; that is, the flood-tide 
comes from the west ! Such is also the case in 
Hecla and Fury Strait ; in both places the tide 
from the west is much the strongest. I am not 
sufficiently informed to discuss this subject, but 
infer the existence of a channel between Victoria 
and Prince of Wales' Land. The rise and fall is 
much less upon the western side of the Isthmus 
of Boothia than upon the east, and it likewise 
decreases, we know, in Barrow Strait, as we ad- 
vance westward. 

2ijrd. — Yesterday Bellot Strait was again ex- 
amined, but the five miles of close pack occupied 
precisely the same position as if heaped together 
by contending tides ; considerable augmentations 
were moreover seen drifting in from the western 
sea. Finding nothing could be effected in Bellot 

* Mr. Kennedy discovered this important passage when in command 
of the 'Prince Albert ' in 1851. 



Aug. 1858. EAMBLE INLAND. 167 

Strait;, we sought in vain for the more southern 
channel which should exist to form Levesque 
Island : we did, however, find a beautiful harbor, 
and are now securely anchored in its north-west 
arm ; I have named it after the gentleman whose 
former island I have thus reluctantly converted 
into the northern extreme of the Boothian Penin- 
sula, and consequently of the American continent. 
The south-western angle of Brentford Bay is still 
covered with unbroken ice. 

This evening we all landed to explore our new 
ground. Young and Petersen shot some brent 
geese ; Walker saw two deer, but he was botaniz- 
ing, and had no gun ; others were seen by some 
of the men, and followed, but without success. 

I enjoyed a delightfully refreshing ramble, a 
mile or two inland, through a gently ascending 
valley, then two miles along the narrow margin 
of a pretty little lake between mountains, beyond 
which lay a much larger one, four or five miles 
in diameter; this farther lake was only partially 
divested^ of its winter ice. Here the scenery was 
not only grand, but beautiful ; there was enough 
of vegetation to tint the craggy hill-sides and 
to make the sheltered hollows absolutely green ; 
deer-tracks and the footprints of wild-fowl were 
everywhere numerous along the water-side. I 
saw two decayed skulls of musk oxen, and circles 
of stones by the little lake, doubtless at some re- 
mote period the summer residence of wandering 



168 FOX'S HOLE. Chap. X. 

Esquimaux ; hence I infer that fish abound in the 
lake, and that this valley is a ftivorite deer-pass. 

But the contemplation of these objects, although 
agreeable, was not the object of my solitary ram- 
ble ; I came on shore to cogitate undisturbed in 
a leisurely and philosophic manner. We hoped 
very soon to enter an unknown sea; discoveries 
were to be made, contingencies provided for, and 
plans prepared to meet them. 

Yesterday Petersen shot an immense bearded 
seal ; it sank, but floated up an hour afterwards. 
This animal measured 8 feet long, and weighed 
about 500 lbs. We prefer its flesh to that of the 
small seals, and its blubber will afford a valuable 
addition to our stock of lamp oil for the coming 
winter. 

2htJi. — In Depot Bay, We remained but 
twenty-four hours in Levesque Harbor ; a change 
of wind led us to hope for a removal of the ice 
in Bellot Strait, therefore I determined to make 
another attempt. 

When off the table-land, where the depth is not 
more than from 6 to 10 fathoms, and the tides 
run strongest, the ship hardly moved over the 
ground, although going 63 knots through the 
water ! Thus delayed, darkness overtook us, and 
we anchored at midnight in a small indentation of 
the north shore, christened by the men Fox's Hole, 
rather more than half-way through. 

For several hours we had been coquetting with 



Aug. 1858. PERILOUS AMUSEMENT. 169 

huge rampant ice-masses that wildly surged about 
in the tideway, or we dashed through boiling ed- 
dies, and sometimes almost grazed the tall cliffs ; 
we were therefore naturally glad of a couple or 
three hours' rest, even in such a very unsafe posi- 
tion. At early dawn we again proceeded west, . 
but for three miles only ; the pack again stopped 
us, and we could perceive that the western sea 
was covered with ice : the east wind, which could 
alone remove it, now gave place to a hard-hearted 
westerly one. 

All the strait to the eastward of us, and the 
eastern sea, as far as could be seen from the hill- 
tops, is perfectly free from ice, whereas in the 
direction we wish to proceed there is nothing but 
packed-ice, or water which cannot be reached. 
Bitterly disappointed we are, of course ; yet there 
is reasonable ground for hope ; grim winter will 
not ratify the obstinate proceedings of the western 
ice for nearly four weeks. 

Last evening's amusement was most exciting, nor 
was it without its peculiar perils. With cunning 
and activity worthy of her name, our little craft 
warily avoided a tilting-match with the stout blue 
masses which Avhirled about, as if with v/ilful im- 
petuosity, through the narrow channel ; some of 
them were so large as to ground even in 6 or 7 
fathoms water. Many were drawn into the eddies, 
and, acquiring considerable velocity in a contrary 
direction, suddenly broke bounds, charging out 
15 



170 PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES. Chap. X. 

into the stream and entering into mighty conflict 
with their fellows. After such a frolic the massses 
would revolve peaceably or unite with the pack, 
and await quietly their certain dissolution; may 
the day of that wished-for dissolution be near at 
liand ! Nothing but strong hope of success in- 
duced me to encounter such dangerous opposition. 
I not only hoped, but ahnost felt, that we deserved 
to succeed. 

Two plans were now occupying my thoughts, 
both of them resulting from the conviction that 
we should probably be compelled to winter to the 
eastward of Bellot Strait : the most important of 
these plans is that of finding some series of valleys, 
chain of lakes, or continuous low land, practicable 
as an overland sledge-route to the western coast, 
along which we may transport depots of provis- 
ions this autumn ; for it is certain that the strong 
tides will prevent Bellot Strait being frozen over 
till winter is far advanced, and its surface will 
afford us no means of passing westward with our 
sledges. 

The other plan, and that which we are now 
about to execute, is to land a small depot of pro- 
visions 60 or 70 miles to the southward, and down 
Prince Regent's Inlet, in order to facilitate com- 
munication with the Esquimaux either this autumn 
or in early spring. 

This precautionary step became so necessary in 
the event of the west coast presenting unusual 



Aug. 1858. STILLWELL BAY. 171 

difficulties, that I determined to carry it at once 
into execution. Quitting the "Fox's Hole/' and 
resting for one night in Depot Bay, we sailed 
thence on the 26th; a fine breeze carried us rapidly 
southward along the coast of Regent Inlet ; there 
was but little obstruction; occasionally it was 
necessary to pass through a stream of loose ice ; 
but we saw little of any kind, compared to the ex- 
periences of Sir John Ross in 1829. 

About dusk (nine o'clock) much loose ice to the 
southward prevented our making any attempt at 
further progress; we therefore anchored off the 
coast — in Stillwell Bay, I think — about 45 miles 
from the Depot Bay. Here the depot, consisting 
of 120 rations, was landed. I observe that it has 
only been on penetrating into Brentford Bay that 
we have found the primary rocks washed by the 
sea ; the coast-hne both north and south, as far as, 
and beyond our present position, is a low shore of 
pale limestone, destitute of fossils ; we can, how- 
ever, see granitic hill-ranges far in the interior. 

On the 27th we commenced beating back to 
the northward, tacking between the land and the 
ice which lay about 15 miles off shore. Towards 
night the wind greatly increased, and the ship, 
under reefed sail plunged violently into the short, 
swift, high seas ; we also felt quite as uneasy and 
restless as the ship, in our great anxiety to get 
back and ascertain what changes were likely to 
be effected by the gale. 



172 EOSS'S CAIRN. Chap. X. 

2^th. — To-night the weather is more pleasant; 
the keen and contrary wind has given place to a 
gentle, fair breeze, the swell has almost subsided, 
no ice has been seen to-day, and the night is dark 
and unusually mild. I can hardly fancy that the 
sea which gently rocks us is not the ocean, and 
the soft air the breath of our own temperate re- 
gion ! The delusion is charming. 

30t7^. — Yesterday after anchoring in Depot Bay 
I walked over to Possession Point, to visit Ross's 
cairn. I found a few stones piled up on two large 
boulders, and under each a halfpenny, one of Avhich 
I pocketed. Upon the ground lay the fragments 
of a bottle which once contained the record, and 
near it a staff about 4 feet long. Having calcu- 
lated upon finding the bottle sound, I was obliged 
to make an imi:)romptu record-case of its long 
neck, into which I thrust my brief document, and 
consigned it to the safe custody of a small heap of 
stones, the staff being erected over it. 

It was dark before I got on board again. The 
strait had been reconnoitred from the hills, and 
was reported to be perfectly clear of ice ! This 
morning we made a fourth attempt to pass 
through; but Bellot Strait was by no means 
clear; the same obstruction existed which de- 
feated our last attempt,, and in precisely the same 
place. Returning eastward, we entered a narrow 
arm of the sea, nearly a couple of miles to the 



Aug. 1858, MT. WALKEE. 173 

west of Depot Bay, and anchored in a small creek 
perfectly sheltered and land-locked, at the foot of 
a sugarloaf hill.* The temperature is falling ; last 
night it stood at 24.° 

* Subsequently named Mount Walker. 

15* 



174 PROCEED WESTWARD IN A BOAT. Chap. XI. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Proceed westward in a boat — Cheerless state of the western sea — Strug- 
gles in Bcllot Strait — Falcons, good Arctic fare — Tlic resources of 
Boothia Felix — Future sledge travelling — Heavy gales — Ilobson's 
party start — Winter quarters — Bellot's Strait — Advanced depot es- 
tablished — Observatories — Intense cold — Autumn travellers — Nar- 
row escape. 

Most anxious to know the real state of the ice in 
the western sea — upon which our hopes so en- 
tirely depend — I intend starting this evening by 
boat, as far through Bellot Strait as the ice will 
permit, then land and ascend the western coast- 
hills. 

1st Sept. — My boat party consisted of four men 
and the doctor, who came with me for the novel- 
ty of the cruise, bringing his camera to fasten 
upon any thing picturesque. We landed near 
Half-way Island, and pitched our tent for the 
night. Early next morning I commenced the 
rather formidable undertaking of ascending the 
hills, for it is not possible to pass under the cliffs, 
and at last I gained the summit of the loftiest, 
overlooking Cape Bird at a distance of 3 or 4 
miles, and affording a spendid view to the west- 
ward, as well as glimpses between the hills of the 




il'CIintoek in his boat sailing tlirougli Bellot Strait 



Sept. 1858. FOUR RIVER POINT. 175 

blue eastern sea. Long and anxiously did I sur- 
A^ey the western sea, ice, and lands, and could not 
but feel that in all jirobability we should not be 
permitted to pass beyond our present position. 

To the northward Four River Point — Sir 
James Ross' farthest in 1849 — was at once rec- 
ognized ; rather more than nine years ago I stood 
upon it with him, and gazed almost as anxiously 
in this direction ! My present view confirmed 
the impression then received, of a wide channel 
leadino; southward. The outline of the western 
land is very distant ; it is of considerable but uni- 
form elevation, and slopes gradually down to the 
strait, which is between 30 and 40 miles wide. 
This western land appears to be limestone, and 
without offlying islands. Our side of the strait or 
sea, on the contrary, is primary rock, and fringed 
with islets and rocks ; its southern extreme bears 
S.S.W., and is probably 30 miles distant. 

Now for the ice. Although broken up, it lies 
asrainst this shore in immense fields : there is but 

o 

little water or room for ice-movement. Along 
the west shore I can distinguish long faint streaks 
of water. There is no appearance of disruption 
about Four River Point or in the contracted part 
of Peel Strait — we have nothing to hope for in 
that quarter ; neither is there any evidence of 
current or pressure ; the ice appears much de- 
cayed, but, as I am surveying it from a height of 
about 1600 feet, I may be deceived. 



176 CHEERLESS STATE OF WESTERN SEA. Chap. XI. 

The strong contrast between the eastern and 
western seas and lands is very unfavorable to the 
latter. 

Apart from the ice, I was fortunate, however, in 
discovering a long narrow lake, occupying a val- 
ley which lies between a small inlet near Cape 
Bird and Hazard Inlet — in fact, a sort of echo of 
Bcllot Strait — and I look upon it as our sledge 
route for the autumn, since it appears probable 
we shall winter in our present position. 

This is a tvonde?vus rough country to scramble 
over ; one never ceases to wonder how such huge 
blocks of rock can have got into such strange po- 
sitions. I noticed two masses in particidar, each 
of them perched upon three small stones. The 
rock is gneiss ; there is also much granite. Even 
upon the hill-tops pieces of limestone are occa- 
sionally met with. 

My walk occupied eleven hours, and, although 
I everywhere saw traces of animals, the only liv- 
ing thing seen was a grey falcon. During my 
absence from the tent the men rambled all over 
the hills, but saw no game, our encampment was 
therefore shifted to a better position near the 
eastern termination of the table-land. This morn- 
ing we explored the neighboring valleys; saw 
three deer, and sliot one, returning on board the 
'■ Fox ' in time for dinner. 

Many deer had been seen not far from the 
ship, and Hobson had shot a bearded seal. I have 



Sept. 1858. STRUGGLES IN BELLOT STEAIT. 177 

organized another boat party j Young will start 
with it to-morrow morning to seek a sledge route 
from the southern angle of Brentford Bay to the 
western sea. 

Wi. — Young returned this morning ; he reports 
the south-west angle of the bay not to run in so 
far as we expected^ and to be environed by very 
liigh Iptud, impracticable for sledges. 

Our Esquimaux, Samuel, shot a fawn to-day. 

Strong northerly winds have latterly prevailed; 
Bellot Strait is quite clear of ice ; to-morrow morn- 
ing, therefore, we shall make our ffth attempt to 
get the 'Fox' through, 

Wi. — Steamed through the clear waters of Bel- 
lot Strait this morning, and made fast to the ice 
across its western outlet at a distance of two miles 
from the shore, and close to a small islet which 
we have already dubbed Pemmican RocJc, having . 
landed upon it a large supply of that substantial 
traveller's fare, with other provisions for our fu- 
ture sledging-parties. This ice is in large stout 
fields, of more than one winter's growth, apjDar- 
ently immovable in consequence of the numerous 
islets and rocks which rise through and hold it 
fast. If the weather permits, we shall remain 
here for a few days and watch the effect of winds 
and tides upon it ; that the ship will get any fur- 
ther seems improbable. 

IWi. — I have explored a small inlet near Cape 
Bird, which we have named False Strait, from its 

M 



178 C.U'E BIRD. Chap. XI. 

striking resemblance to the true one, and find it 
is only separated from the long lake by half a 
mile of low land; the lake we have ascertained 
to be about 12 miles long, and from it valleys ex- 
tend eastward and southward, so that we are sure 
of a good sledge-route, — an important matter, as 
the hills rise to 1600 feet above the sea. 

Cape Bird is 500 feet high; from its summit 
we carefully observe the ice. This granite coast 
presents a jagged appearance ; it is deeply in- 
dented and studded with islets. The ice in the 
western sea (or Peel's Strait) is much more broken 
up than it was upon the 31st ultimo; there is no 
longer any fixed ice except within the grasp of 
the islets. Birds and animals have become very 
scarce; three seals have been shot, and a bear 
seen. To-morrow we shall return to our harbor, 
and endeavor to procure a few more reindeer be- 
fore they migrate southward. 

12lh. — Yesterday we anchored within the en- 
trance of our creek, being a more convenient 
position than up at its head. We are already in 
our wintering position, and, being without occu- ' 
pation, one day seems most remarkably like 
another! Although the fondly cherished hope 
of pushing farther in our shij) can no longer be 
entertained, yet as long as the season continues 
navigable it is our duty to be in readiness to avail 
ourselves of any opportunity, however improba- 
ble, of being able to do so. 



Sept. 1858. FALCONS GOOD ARCTIC FARE. 179 

Once firmly frozen in, our autumn travelling 
will commence, and afford welcome occupation. 
Almost all on board have guns ; ammunition is 
supplied, and a sailor with a musket is a very con- 
tented and zealous sportsman, if not always a 
successful one ; it is a powerful incentive to ex- 
ercise. To-day the ramblers saw only two hares, 
an ermine, and an owl. Some peregrine falcons 
have lately been shot ; Petersen declares they 
are " the best heef in the country, and the young Urds 
tender and white as chicJcen ! " 

A few days ago a large cask of biscuit was 
opened, and a living mouse discovered therein! 
it was small, but mature in years. The cask, a 
strong watertight one, was packed on shore at 
Aberdeen, in June, 1857, and remained ever after- 
wards unopened; there Avas no hole by which the 
mouse could have got in or out, besides it is the 
only one ever seen on board. Ship's biscuit is 
certainly dry feeding, but who dares assert, after 
the experience of our mouse, that it is not won- 
derfully nutritious ? 

Ihth. — Two nights ago a comet was observed 
just beneath the constellation of the Great Bear ; 
a series of measurements were commenced for de- 
termining its path.^ Yesterday I walked through 
the most promising valleys for eight hours, but 
did not see a living creature ; yet there is a very 
fair show of vegetation, much more than at Mel- 
ville Island, where the game is abundant. To the 



180 PORT KENNEDY. Chat. XI. 

east there is not a speck of ice, excepting only a 
huge iceberg, probably the same we saw off Fury 
Point, a very unusual visitor from Bafhn's Bay, 
whence it must have been driven by those long- 
continued east winds (of painful memory) in June 
and July. 

Hobson and two men encamped out for three 
days in order to scour the country ; they have 
only seen one hare and one lemming! Walker 
geologizes ; amongst other things he finds much 
iron pyrites. The dredge has been used, but with 
very little success. The thermometer ranges be- 
tween 20° and 30°. Fresh water pools are frozen 
over, sea-ice forms in every sheltered angle of the 
creeks. There is no snow upon the land, and this 
is one cause of the difficulty of finding game. 

I have determined upon naming this beautiful 
little anchorage Port Kennedy ^ after my prede- 
cessor, the discoverer of Bellot Strait, of which 
it is decidedly the port. This is not a compli- 
ment to him, but an agreeable duty to me, and 
nowhere could Mr. Kennedy's name be more 
appropriately affixed than in close proximity 
with his interesting discovery. And now hav- 
ing made this acknowledgment, I may venture 
to confer our little vessel's name upon the islets 
which protect its entrance. 

The island upon which Mr. Kennedy and 
Lieutenant Bellot encamped was Long Island, 
about three miles fm-ther to the south-east. 



Sept. 1858. FUTUEE SLEDGE TRAVELLING. 181 

Ylth. — Of late we have been preparing pro- 
visions and equipments for our travelling parties. 
My scheme of sledge search comprehends three 
separate routes and parties of four men ; to each 
party a dog-sledge and driver will be attached ; 
Hobson, Young, and I will lead them. 

My journey will be to the Great Fish River, 
examining the shores of King William's Land 
in going and returning; Petersen will be with 
me. 

Hobson will explore the western coast of 
Boothia as far as the magnetic pole, this au- 
tumn, I hope, and from Gateshead Island west- 
ward next spring. 

Young will trace the shore of Prince of Wales' 
Land from Lieutenant Browne's farthest, to the 
south-westward to Osborn's farthest, if possible, 
and also examine between Four River Point and 
Cape Bird. 

Our probable absence will be sixty or seventy 
days, commencing from about the 20th March. 

In this way I trust we shall complete the 
Franklin search and the geographical discovery 
of Arctic America, both left unfinished by the 
former expeditions; and in so doing we can 
hardly fail to obtain some trace, some relic, or, 
it may be, important records of those whose 
mysterious fate it is the great object of our 
labors to discover. But previous to setting forth 
upon these important journeys, I must communi- 
16 



182 STEAM THROUGH BELLOT STRAIT. Ciiai-. XI. 

cate with the Boothians, if possible, cither upon 
the west or east coast, in November or Februarj^ 
Sir John Ross' ' Narrative ' informs ns that they 
sometimes winter as fiir north upon the east coast 
as the Agnew River ; and we know tliat upon the 
west, at the magnetic pole, their abandoned snow 
huts were occupied in June by Sir James Ross. 

19//^. — Yesterday we steamed once more 
through Bellot Strait, and took up our former 
position at the ice-edge, off its western entrance ; 
the ice, hemmed in by islets has not moved. 

From the summit of Cape Bird I had a very 
extensive view this morning : there is now much 
water in the offing, only separated from us by 
the belt of islet-girt ice scarcely four miles in tvitUh! 
My conviction is that a strong east wind would 
remove this remaining barrier ; it is not yet too 
late. The water runs parallel to this coast, and 
is four or five miles broad ; beyond it there is ice, 
but it appears to be all broken up. 

Yesterday Young went upon • a dog-sledge to 
the nearest south-western island, distant 7 or 8 
miles. He reports the intervening ice cracked 
and weak in some places, but practicable for 
loaded sledges; the far side of the island is 
washed by a clear sea, and a bear which he shot 
plunged into it, and, drifting away, was lost. 
Young is in favor of carrj'ing out the depot pro- 
visions to or beyond this island by boat ; but as 
the temperature fell to 18° last night, and new 




Dog sledge or scout party. 



Sept. 1858. HOBSON'S PAETY STAET. 183 

ice forms wherever it is calm, I prefer the safer, 
although more laborious m.ode of sledging ; ac- 
cordingly to-day our dogs carried out two sledge- 
loads of the provisions intended for the use of 
our parties hereafter. 

1%%d. — All the provisions have now been car- 
ried out to the nearest island, which I shall tem- 
porarily name Separation, * as there our spring 
parties will divide ; and a portion intended for 
Hobson's party and my own has been carried on 
to the next island 7 or 8 miles further. Our 
travelling boat and a small reserve depot have 
been placed upon Pemmican Eock, so already 
something has been done. Animal life is very 
scarce ; a few seals, an occasional gull, and three 
brown falcons, are the only creatures we have 
seen for several days past. Last evening at eight 
o'clock a very vivid jQash of lightning was ob- 
served ; its appearance in these latitudes is very 
rare ; once only have I seen it before — in Sep- 
tember, 1850. 

25//^. — Saturday night. Furious gales from 
N. and S.W., but our barrier of coast-ice remains 
undiminished. This morning Hobson set off upon 
a journey of fourteen or fifteen days' duration, 
with seven men and fourteen dogs ; he is to ad- 
vance the depots along shore to the south, and if 
successful will reach latitude 71°. 

* Subsequently named after my excellent friend A. Arcedeckne, Esq., 
Comr^odore of the Eoyal London Yacht Club. 



184 WINTER QUARTERS. Cnxp. XL 

The temperature is mild (-|- 17), but it is snowy 
and disagreeable weather ; there is already enough 
snow upon the old ice to make walking laborious, 
and the land has also assumed its wintry com- 
plexion. 

28///. — The ship was kept available for prose- 
cuting her voyage up to the laic.'<t hour ; it was 
only yesterday that we left the western ice, and 
in consequence of the vast accumulation of young 
ice in Bellot Strait we had considerable difficult}'' 
in reaching the entrance of Port Kennedy: all 
within was so firmly frozen over that after three 
hours' steaming and working we only penetrated 
100 yards ; however, we are in an excellent posi- 
tion, although our wintering place will be farther 
out by a quarter of a mile than I intended. 

To-day we are unbending sails and lajnng up 
the engines — uncertainty no longer exists — here 
we are compelled to remain ; and if we have not 
been as successful in our voyaging as a month 
ago we had good reason to expect, we may still 
hope that Fortune will smile upon our more hum- 
ble, yet more arduous, pedestrian explorations — 
" Hope on, hope ever." In the mean time the 
sudden transition, from mental and physical wear 
and tear, to the securit}^ and quiet of winter quar- 
ters, is an immense relief 

2nd Oct. — M. Petersen has shot two very fine 
bucks ; one is a magnificent fellow, weighing 354 
lbs. (minus the paunch). Several deer have been 



Oct. 1858. ERMINE HUNT. 185 

seen ; they come from the N. along the slopes of 
the eastern hills. An ermine came on board a few- 
nights ago and kept the dogs in a violent state of 
excitement, being much too wary to come out 
from under the boat to be caught by them ; at 
lensfth one of the men secured it. This beautiful 
little animal does not appear to be full grown ; its 
extreme lenscth is 13 inches. Two others came 
off to the ship, and to our great amusement eluded 
the men who gave chase, by darting into the soft 
snow — which is now a foot deep — and re-appear- 
ing several yards off. 

The weather is too mild to satisfy us ; we wish 
for severe frost to seal us up securely, and make 
the ice strong enough to bear the sledge-loads of 
provisions, etc., which are to be landed for the 
purpose of making more room in the ship. 

&h. — A herd of a dozen reindeer crossed the 
harbor to-day. Last night Hobson and his com- 
panions returned, all well. They were stopped 
by the sea washing against the cliffs in latitude 
111°, and to that point they have advanced 
the dep6ts. Although the w^eather has been 
stormy here, they have been able to travel every 
day. They found the coast still fringed with 
islets, and deeply indented ; upon every j)oint, 
moss-grown circles of stones indicated the abodes 
of Esquimaux in times long since gone by. 

One night they muzzled a dog, as she was in 
the habit of gnawing her harness : in this defence- 
16* 



186 IIOBSON'S PARTY KETURNED. Chap. XL 

less state, unable even to bark and arouse the 
men, her amiable sisterliood attacked her so fiercely 
that she died next day ! 

In honor of so important and successful a com- 
mencement of our travelling, as that accomplished 
by Hobson, we had a feast of good venison, plum 
pudding, and grog. It is quite evident that no 
more travelling can be accomplished until the ice 
forms a pathway alongshore ; in this, as in some 
other respects, we anxiously await the advance of 
the season. The weather is mild ; Bellot Strait is 
almost covered Avith ice, which drifts freely with 
every tide. Reindeer are seen almost daily ; they 
too are awaiting the freezing over of the sea to 
continue their southern travels. Our harbor-ice 
is weak and covered a foot deep with a sludgy 
compound of snow and water. 

Sih. — Yesterday an ermine was caught in a 
trap ; hitherto these most active little skirmishers 
have successfully robbed our fox-traps of their 
baits as fast as they could be renewed. To-day 
Petersen shot another reindeer; it weighs 130 lbs.; 
many others were seen, also a wolf Sometimes 
a few ptarmigan are met with, but hares very 
rarely. 

12th. — Fine weather generally prevails. We 
have landed about 100 casks, all our boats, and 
much lumber, so we shall have abundance of room 
on board. I enjoyed a long and exhilarating ram- 
ble upon snow-shoes to-day; without them I could 




Interior of tlie Observatory. 



Oct. 1858. FREQUENT GALES. 187 

not have gone over half the distance — the snow 
lies so deep and soft — but I only saw one rein- 
deer. 

iiiJi. — One of our magnetic observatories has 
been built; it stands upon the ice, 210 yards S. 
(magnetic) from the shij), and is built of ice sawed 
into blocks — there not being any suitable snow ; 
it is just large enough to hold the declinometer 
for hourly observations, to be noted throughout 
the winter. The housings have been put over the 
ship already, as Hobson will leave us again in a 
few days to advance his depot and my own to the 
vicinity of the magnetic pole if possible. I would 
also send Young upon a similar duty, but the 
western sea cannot have frozen over yet. 

lWi. — k\l the 17th a N.W. gale blew with 
fearful violence ; yesterday it abated, but not suf- 
ficiently to allow our party to start. This morn- 
ing Hobson got away with his nine men and ten 
dogs ] his absence may be from eighteen to twen- 
ty days. Autumn travelling is most disagreeable; 
there is so much wind and snow, the latter being 
soft, deep, and often wet ; the sun is almost al- 
ways obscured by mist, and is powerless for 
warmth or drying purposes, and the temperature 
is vary variable. Moreover there are now only 
eight hours of misty daylight. To-day the morn- 
ing was fine, and temperature -[-8°. Having 
completed the preliminary observations of the 
times of horizontal and vertical vibrations, also 



188 ANOTHER OBSERVATORY BUILT. Cuap. XL 

of the maguetic intensity, I set up to-day the 
declinometer, and commenced the hourly series 
of observations on the diurnal variation. I trust 
it may continue unbroken until we all set out 
upon our spring travels in March. A hare has 
been shot, but no other animals seen. 

29//^. — It generally blows a gale of M'ind here ; 
the only advantage in return for so much discom- 
fort is that the snow is the more quickly packed 
hard. As we have only three working men and 
an Esquimaux left on board for ship's duties, I was 
assisted a few days ago by the doctor, the engi- 
neer, and the interpreter, in building another ob- 
servatory, intended for certain monthly magnetic 
observations. This edifice is constructed of snow. 
Whenever we have a calm night we can hear the 
crushing sound of the drift-ice in Bellot Strait, 
which continues open to within 500 yards of the 
Fox Islands, and emits dark chilling clouds of 
hateful, pestilent, abominable mist. 

The last two days have been very fine and 
calm : the men visited their fox and ermine traps, 
which are secreted amongst the rocks in a most 
mysterious manner — one ermine only has been 
taken. Seven or eight reindeer and some ptarmi- 
gan were seen ; two of the latter and a hare were 
shot. We have commenced brewinoj suo;ar beer. 

2nd Nov. — Very dull times. No amount of in- 
genuity could make a diary worth the paper it 
is written on. An occasional raven flies past, a 



Nov. 1858. NARROW ESCAPE. 189 

couple more ptarmigan have been shot : another 
N.W. gale is blowing, with temperature down 
to -12°. 

Wi. — Saturday Night. The N.W. gale blew 
without intermission for seventy hours, the tem- 
perature being about —15° : we hoped that our 
absent shipmates might be housed safely in snow 
huts. This afternoon all doubts respecting them 
were dispelled by their arrival in good health, but 
they evidently have suffered from cold and ex- 
posure during their absence of nineteen days. 
For the first six days they journeyed outward suc- 
cessfully ; on that night they encamped upon the 
ice ; it was at spring-tide, a N.E. gale sprang up, 
and blowing off shore detached the ice and drifted 
them off! The sea froze over on the cessation 
of the gale, and two days afterwards they fortu- 
nately regained the land near the position from 
which they were blown off; they have indeed 
experienced much unusual danger and suffering 
from cold. 

As soon as they discovered that the ice was 
drifting off shore with them, they packed their 
sledges, harnessed their dogs, and passed the night 
in anxious watching for some chance to escape. 
When the ice got a little distance off shore, it 
broke up under the influence of the wind and sea, 
until the piece they were upon was scarce 20 
yards in diameter \ this drifted across the mouth 



190 ADVANCED DEPOTS. Chap. XI. 

of a wide inlet'-' until brought up against the op- 
posite shore. The gale was quickly followed by 
an intense frost, which in a single night formed 
ice sufficiently strong to bear them in safety to 
the land, although it bent fearfully beneath their 
weight. 

The depots were eventually established in lati- 
tude 71° ; beyond this Lieutenant Uobson did not 
attempt to advance, not only because their re- 
maining provisions would not have warranted a 
longer absence, but because the open sea was seen 
to beat against the next headland. The}^ have 
lived in tents onl}^, and have not experienced 
the heavy gales so frequent here, and which are 
probably due mainly to our position in Bellot 
Strait, which performs the part of a funnel for 
both winds and tides between the two seas. 

That the western sea should still remain open 
argues a vast space southward for the escape of 
the ice, and prevents our western party from car- 
rying across their depot: the attempt to do so 
would be extremely hazardous. "We must only 
be stiring earlier in the spring. I am truly 
thankful for the safe return of our travellers, — 
all this toil and exposure of ten persons and ten 
dogs has only advanced the depots 30 miles fur- 

* Named after Lord Wrottesley, in rememhrancc of the support given hj 
him to the expedition, his advocacy of it in the House of Lords, and of 
the facilities granted me by the Koyal Society — of which he was Presi- 
dent — for the pm-suit of scientific observations. 



Nov. 1858. EFFECT OF GALES. 191 

ther — i.e. from 60 to 90 miles distant from the 
ship. 

Hardly a particle of snow remains upon the 
harbor-ice, the recent gales having swept it away ; 
and the porch of my snow-hut has been fretted 
away to a mere cobweb by the attrition of the 
snow-drift: the doctor and I rebuilt it to-day. 
Three reindeer and a wolf have been seen. 



192 DEATH OF OUR ENGINEER. Chap. XH. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Death of onr engineer — Scarcity of game — The cold unusally trying — 
Jolly, under adverse circumstances — Petersen's information — licturn 
of the sun of 1859 — Early spring sledge parties — Unusual severity of 
the winter — Severe hardships of early sledging — The western shores 
of Boothia — Meet the Esquimaux — Intelligence of Franklia's ships— 
Return to the ' Fox ' — Allen Young returns. 

Nov. ^th. — Sunday evening. — Brief as is the inter- 
val since my last entry, yet how awful, and, to 
one of our small company, how fatal it has been ! 
Yesterday Mr. Brand was out shooting as usual, 
and in robust health ; in the evening Hobson sat 
with him for a little time. Mr. Brand turned the 
conversation upon our position and employments 
last year 5 he called to remembrance poor Robert 
Scott, then in sound health, and the fact of his 
having carried our " Guy Fawkes " round the ship 
on the preceding day twelvemonth, and added 
mournfully, " Poor fellow ! no one knoAvs whose 
turn it may be to go next." He finished his 
evening j)ipe, and shut his cabin door shortly 
after nine o'clock. This morning, at seven o'clock, 
his servant found him lying upon the deck, a 
corpse, having been several hours dead. Apo- 
plexy appears to have been the cause. He was a 
steady, serioui^ man, under forty years of age, and 



Nov. 1858. THE FUNERAL. 193 

leaves a widow and three or four children ; what 
their circumstances are I am not aware. 

lOtJi. — This morning the remains of Mr. Brand, 
inclosed in a neat coffin, were buried in a grave 
on shore. A suitable headboard and inscription 
will be placed over it. From all that I have 
gathered, it appears that his mind had been some- 
what gloomy for the last few days, dwelling much 
upon poor Scott's sudden death. Whether he 
really saw three reindeer on Saturday, watched 
their movements, and fired his Minie rifle at them 
when 700 yards distant, or whether it was the 
creation of a disordered brain, none can tell. On 
his first return on board he said he had seen deer 
tracks only. 

We are now without either engineer or engine- 
driver : we have only two stokers, and they know 
nothing about the machinery. Our numbers are 
reduced to twenty-four, including our interpreter 
and two Greenland Esquimaux. 

lUh. — We have enjoyed ten days of moderate 
winds and calms, but the temperature has fallen 
as low as -31°. This causes frost-cracks in the ice 
across the harbor ; they will freeze over, and others 
will form, and gape, and freeze at intervals, so that 
by next spring we shall probably be moved sev- 
eral inches, perhaps feet, off shore. 

Mists have obscured the sun of late, and now 
it does not rise at all. We are indifferent j its de- 
17 N 



194 SCARCITY OF GAME. Chap XH. 

ptarture has become to us a matter of course. 
The usual winter covering of snow has been 
spread upon deck rather more than a foot thick. 
Its utiUty in preventing the escape of heat be- 
came at once strikingly apparent. Nothing has 
been seen but a few ptarmigan and one reindeer, 
which trotted off towards the ship. Our bullets 
missed him, and the dogs unfortunately caught 
sight and chased him away. I do not think any 
dogs could overtake a reindeer in this rough 
country; the rocks would speedily lame them, 
and the snow, in many places, is quite deep 
enough to fatigue them greatlj^, whereas it offei's 
but slight impediment to the deer, furnished as he 
is with long legs and spreading Jboofs. 

29//^. — Animals have become very scarce. A 
few ptarmigan and willow-grouse have been seen, 
and three shot. Two days ago I saw two rein- 
deer. The eastern sea is frozen over, and our old 
acquaintance the iceberg in Prince Eegent's Inlet 
is still visible on a clear day. We brew sugar- 
beer, and we set nets for seals, but catch none. 
The nets have been made and set in favorable 
positions under the ice hy the Greenlanders, so we 
suppose the seals also have migrated elsewhere ; 
if so, the Esquimaux could not winter here. AVe 
have no regular school this winter, but five of the 
men study navigation every evening under the 
guidance of Young. Ilobson and I are doing all 



Dec. 1858. SEVERE WEATHER. 195 

we can to make the ship 'dry, warm, and comfort- 
able : our large snow porches over the hatchways 
are a great improvement. 

Wi Dec. — Cold, windy weather, with chilling 
mists from the open water in Bellot Strait. We 
can seldom leave the shelter of the ship for a 
walk on shore, and, when we do, rarely see even 
a ptarmigan. 

12th. — Yery cold weather : thermometer down 
to -41°, and the breeze comes to us loaded with 
mist from the open water, causing the air to feel 
colder than it otherwise would. Bellot Strait has 
become a nuisance, not only from this cause, but 
from the strong winds — purely local — which 
seldom cease to blow through it. 

The seal nets have produced nothing; and as 
there are no seals, we no longer wonder at not 
seeing bears. Three foxes have been trapped and 
a hare seen. Our canine force numbers twenty- 
four serviceable dogs and six puppies ; but these, 
I fear, will not be strong enough for sledging by 
March. The monotony of our lives is vastly in- 
creased by want of occupation, and confinement, 
by severe gales, to the ship for five days out 
of every seven. The general health is good, 
but there is a natural craving for fresh meat and 
fresh vegetables — in great measure, perhaps, 
because they cannot be obtained ; but a well- 
filled letter-bag would be more welcome than 
anything I know of. 



19G COLD UNUSUALLY TRYING. Cii\r. XIL 

26///. — Upon four clays only during the last 
fourteen has the weather permitted us to walk. • 
I allude to the wind as the obstacle to our exer- 
cise ; for temperature, when the air is still, is no 
bar to any reasonable amount of it. Three or 
four coveys of ptarmigan have been seen, and of 
these I shot one brace. The cold increases : 
thermometer has fallen to -4:7V', although blow- 
ing a moderate gale at the time, and the atmos- 
phere dense with mist. 

Our Christmas has been spent with a degree of 
loyalty to the good old English custom at once 
spirited and refreshing. All the good things 
which could possibly be collected together ap- 
peared upon the snow-white deal tables of the 
men, as the officers and myself walked (by invi- 
tation) round the lower deck. Venison, beer, 
and a fresh stock of clay pipes, appeared to be 
the most prized luxuries; but the variety and 
abundance of the eatables, tastefully laid out, was 
such as might well support the delusion which all 
seemed desirous of imposing upon themselves — 
that they were in a land of plenty — in fact, all 
but at home ! We contributed a large cheese and 
some preserves, and candles superseded the ordi- 
nary smoky lamps. With so many comforts, and 
the existence of so much genuine good feelmg, 
their evening was a joyous one, enlivened also by 
songs and music. 

Whilst all was order and merriment within the 



Jan. 1859. NEW YEAE'S DAY. 197 

ship, the scene without was widely different. A 
fierce north-wester howled loudly through the 
rigging, the snow-drift rustled swiftly past, no 
star appeared through the oppressive gloom, and 
the thermometer varied between 76° and 80° helmo 
the freezing point At one time it was impossible 
to visit the magnetic observatory, although only 
210 yards distant, and with a rope stretched along, 
breast high, upon poles the whole way. The ofi&- 
cers discharged this duty for the quarter-masters 
of the watches during the day and night. 

Ist Jan. 1859. — This being Saturday night as 
well as Neiv Year's Dag, " Sweethearts and Wives " 
were remembered with even more than the ordi- 
nary feeling. New year's eve was celebrated with 
all the joyfulness which ardent hope can inspire : 
and we have reasonable ground for strong hope. At 
midnight the expiration of the old year and com- 
mencement of the new one was announced to me 
by the hand — flutes, accordion, and gong — strik- 
ing up at my door. Some songs were sung, and 
the performance concluded with " God save the 
Queen ; " the few who could find space in our 
mess-room sang the chorus ; but this by no means 
satisfied all the others who were without and una- 
ble to show themselves to the ofl&cers, so they 
echoed the chorus, and the effect was very pleas- 
ing. Our new year's day has been commemo- 
rated with all the substantial of Christmas fare, 
but without so much display, — less tailoring in 
17* 



198 INTENSE COLD. Chap. XII. 

pastry, not quite so much clipping of dough into 
roses, and anchors, and nondescript animals, &c., 
&c. The past week has been cold and stormy ; 
it now blows strong, and the temperature is -44°. 

On the 29th a few fresh tracks of animals and 
a ptarmigan were seen : yesterday I saw three 
ptarmigan. December proved to be an unusually 
cold month, its mean temperature being -33° ; 
and it was rendered more than ordinarily flark 
and gloomy by continual mists from Bellot Strait 
This open water adds seriously to the drawbacks 
of a spot already sufficiently cheerless, gameless, 
and " wind-loved." 

Wi. — Another week of uniform temperature 
of -40°, and confinement to the ship by strong 
winds ; the atmosphere is loaded with enveloping 
mists which impart a raw and surprising!}- keen 
edge to the chilling blasts, blasts that no human 
nose can endure without blanching, be its propor- 
tions what they may. It is wonderful how the 
dogs stand it, and without apparent inconvenience, 
unless their fur happen to be thin. They lie upon 
the snow under the lee of the ship, with no other 
protection from the weather. 

To-day, the winds being light and temperature 
vp to -30°, we enjoyed walks on shore, although 
the mist continued so dense as to limit our view 
to a couple of hundred yards. 

I learn from Petersen that the natives of Smith's 
Sound are well acquainted with the continuation 



Jan. 1859. PETERSEN'S INFORMATION. 199 

of its shores considerably beyond the farthest 
point reached by Kane's exploring parties, but 
unfortunately no one thought of getting them 
to delineate their local knowledge upon paper. 
They spoke much of a large island near the west 
coast called " Umingmak " (musk ox) Island, 
where there was much open water, abounding 
with walrus, and where some of their people 
formerly lived* 

Esquimaux exist upon the east coast of Green- 
land as far north as lat. 76°; how much farther 
north is not known. They are separated from the 
South Greenlanders by hundreds of miles of ice- 
bound coasts and impassable glaciers. 

Many centuries ago a milder climate may and 
probably did exist, and a corresponding modifica- 
tion of glacier and a sea less ice-encumbered might 
have rendered the migration of these poor people 
from the south to their present isolated abodes 
practicable ; but to me it appears much more easy 
to suppose that they migrated eastward from the 
northern outlet of Smith's Sound. 

21sl — More pleasant weather since my last 
entry ; and although last night the temperature 
fell to -47°, yet it has generally been mild ;, once 
it rose to -14°, but amply made amends by falling 
to -38° within twelve hours. We have enjoyed 

* Petersen conversed with two men who had themselves been up to 
Umingmak Island. 



200 RETURN OF THE SUN, 1859. Chap. XII. 

much of the moon's presence for the last ten days, 
but now she is waning and hastening away to the 
south. Dayhght increases in strength and dura- 
tion, consequently we walk more, and see more, 
and the winter's gloom gives place to activity and 
cheerfulness. Several ptannigan, three or four 
hares, a snowy owl, and a bear-track, have at 
various times been seen. Young has shot four 
ptarmigan, and I have shot a couple more and a 
hare, and the men have trapped two foxes. 

On board the ship the preparations for travelling 
take precedence of all other occupations. 

26^/i. — Part of the sun's disc loomed above the 
horizon to-day, somewhat swollen and disfigured 
by the misty atmosphere, but looking benevolent 
withal. I happened to be diligently traversing 
the rocky hill-sides in the hope of finding some 
solitary hare dozing in fancied security, when the 
sun thus appeared in view, and halted to feast my 
eyes upon the glorious sight, and scan the features 
of our returning friend. Hope and promise min- 
gled in his bright beams. Again I moved upward, 
and vvdth more elastic step ; for now the sun of 
1859 was shining upon all nature around me. 

2nd Febnmrij. — A lovely, calm, bright day, and 
beautifully clear, except over the waterspacc in 
Bcllot Strait, where rests a densely black mist, 
very strongly resembling the "West Indian rain- 
squall as it looms upon the distant horizon. Tlio 



Feb. 1859. EAELY SPKING SLEDGE PARTIES. 201 

increasing sunlight is cheering, but void of heat, 
and the mercury is often frozen. A few more 
ptarmigan have been shot. 

Our remaining serviceable dogs, twenty-two in 
number, have been divided with great care into 
three teams of seven each ; the odd dog is added 
to my team, as my journey is expected to be the 
longest. The different sledge-parties will now 
feed up their dogs without limit, so that the 
utmost degree of work may be got out of them 
hereafter. 

January has been slightly colder than Decem- 
ber, mean temperature being -332°, but there has 
been rather less wind. 

Wi. — All will be ready for the departure of 
Young and myself upon our respective journeys 
upon the morning of the 14th. 

Mr. Petersen and Alexander Thompson accom- 
pany me, with two dog-sledges, and fifteen dogs, 
dragging twenty-four days' provisions. My object 
is to communicate with the Boothians in the 
vicinity of the magnetic pole. Young takes his 
party of four men and his dog-sledge; he will 
carry forward provisions for his spring exploration 
of the shores of Prince of Wales' Land, between 
the extreme points reached by Lieutenants Osborn 
and Brown in 1851. 

On the 3d I walked for seven and a half hours, 
and saw two reindeer, but could not approach 
within shot. Young examined the water-space in 



202 ATTACK OF SCURVY. Chap. XII. 

the strait, and finds it washes both shores, but ex- 
tends east and west only about one mile. The 
Doctor has seen a seal and a dovekie sporting 
in it. 

For the last four days strong winds and intense 
cold have prevented us from rambling over the 
hills, besides which the minor preparations for 
travelling have given us more occupation on 
board. 

James Pitcher has got a slight touch of scur- 
vy; his gums are inflamed; and now it comes 
out that he dislikes preserved meats, and has not 
eaten any since he has been in the ship ! He has 
lived upon salt meat and preserved vegetables, 
except for the very short periods in summer when 
birds could be obtained. He is rather a " used-up" 
Old fellow, too much so for our severe sledge-work, 
therefore is one of the few who will remain to 
take care of the ship. That he should. have re- 
tained his health for seventeen months, under the 
circumstances, speaks well for the wholesomcness 
and quality of our provisions, and the ventilation 
and cleanliness of the ship. 

IWi. — Extremely cold, with dense mists from 
the open water. Yesterday eight ptarmigan and 
a sooty fox were seen. We have consumed the 
last of our venison ; it supplied us for three da3^s. 
"We are drinking out a cask of sugar-beer, which 
is a very mild but agreeable beverage ; we make 
it on board. 



Feb. 1859. UNUSUALLY SEVEEE WEATHEE. 203 

Sundaf/ night, I'^th. — To-morrow morning, if fine, 
Young and I set off upon our travels. He has 
advanced a portion of his sledge-load to the west 
side of the water in Bellot Strait, having been 
obliged to carry it overland for about a mile in 
order to get there. I have explored the route to 
the long lake, and find we can reach it without 
crossing elevated or uncovered land. I saw two 
reindeer, and Young saw about twenty ptarmi- 
gan. 

The mean temperature of February up to this 
date is -33-2°, being an exact continuation of 
January. I confess to some anxiety upon this 
point, as hitherto the winter has been unusually 
severe, and the journeys to be performed will 
occupy more than twenty days. Besides, we 
shall be earlier in motion than any of the pre- 
vious travellers, unless we are to make an excep- 
tion in favor of Mr. Kennedy's trip of 30 miles 
from Batty Bay to Fury Beach, between the 5th 
and 10th January, during which time the lowest 
temperature registered was only -25°. Should 
either Young or myself remain absent beyond 
the period for which we carry provisions, Hobson 
is to send a party in search of us. A sooty fox 
has been captured lately. 

15^/?. — A strong N.W. wind, with a tempera- 
ture of -40°, confines us on board. One cannot 
face these winds, therefore it is fortunate that we 



204 JOURNEY TO CAPE VICTOniA. Chap. XII. 

did not start, the ship being much more comfort- 
able than a snow-hut. 

2Wi March. — Already I have been a week on 
board, and so difficult is it to settle down to any- 
thing like sedentary occupation, after a period of 
continued vigorous action, that even now I can 
scarcely sit still to scribble a brief outline of my 
trip to Cape Victoria. 

On the morning of the ITtli February the 
weather moderated sufficiently for us to set out; 
the temperature throughout the day varied be- 
tween -31° and -42F. Leaving Young's party 
to pass on through the strait, I proceeded by way 
of the Long Lake, which I found to be lOi- geo- 
graphical miles in length, with an average width 
of half a mile. 

We built our snow-hut uj^on the west coast, 
near Pemmican Rock, after a march of 19 or 20 
geographical miles. We always speak of (/co- 
grapliical miles with reference to our marches ; six 
geographical are equal to seven English miles. 

On the 'following day the old N.W. wind sprang 
up with renewed vigor, and the thermometer fell 
to -48°;. the cold was therefore intense. 

On the thhd da}'' our dogs "went lame in con- 
sequence of sore feet ; the intense cold seems to 
be the principal, if not the only cause, having 
hardened the surface-snow bej-ond what their feet 
can endure. I was obliged to throw off a part of 



Mar. 1859. TRAVELLING EOUTINE. 205 

the provisions ; still we could not make more than 
12 or 18 miles daily. We of com^se walked, so 
that the dogs had only the remaining provisions 
and clothing to drag, yet several of them re- 
peatedly fell down in fits. 

For several days this severe weather continued, 
the mercury of my artificial horizon remaining 
frozen (its freezing-point is -39°) ; and our rum, 
at first thick like treacle, requked thawing lat- 
terly, when the more fluid and stronger part had 
been used. Yie travelled each day until dusk, 
and then were occupied for a couple of hours in 
building our snow-hut. The four walls were run 
up until Si feet high, inclining inwards as much 
as possible ; over these our tent was laid to form 
a roof; we could not afford the time necessary to 
construct a dome of snow. 

Our equipment consisted of a very small 
brown-hoUand tent, macintosh floor-cloth, and felk 
robes; besides this, each man had a bag of double ' 
blanketing, and a pah' of fur boots, to sleep in. 
We wore mocassins over the pieces of blanket in 
which our feet were wrapped up, and, with the 
exception of a change of thi« foot-gear, carried no 
spare clothes. The daily routine was as follows : 
— I led the way; Petersen and Thompson fol- 
lowed, conducting their sledges ; and in this man- 
ner we trudged on for eight or ten hours without 
halting, except when necessary to disentangle the 
dog-harness. Y/hen we halted for the night, 
18 



206 TRAVELLING ROUTINE. CnAr. XIL 

Thompson and I usually sawed out the blocks of 
compact snow and carried them to Petersen, who 
acted as the master-mason in building the snow- 
hut: the hour and a half or two hours usually 
employed in erecting the edifice was the »nost 
disagreeable of the day's labor, for, in addition to 
being already well tired and desiring repose, we 
became thoroughly chilled whilst standing about. 
When the hut was finished, the dogs were fed, 
and here the great difficulty was to insure the 
weaker ones their full share in the scramble for 
supper ; then commenced the operation of un- 
pa-cking the sledge, and carrying into our hut 
ever3'thing necessary for ourselves, such as pro- 
vision and sleeping gear, as well as all boots, fur 
mittens, and even the sledge dog-harness, to pre- 
vent the dogs from eating them during our sleep- 
ing hours. The door was now blocked up with 
snow, the cooking-lamj} lighted, foot-gear changed, 
diary written up, watches wound, sleeping bags 
wriggled into, pipes lighted, and the merits of the 
various dogs discussed, until sujoper was ready ; the 
supper swallowed, the upper robe or coverlet was 
pulled over, and then to sleep. 

Next morning came breakfast, a struggle to get 
into frozen mocassins, after which the sledges were 
packed, and another day's march commenced. 

In these little huts we usually slept warm 
enough, although latterly, when our blankets and 
clothes became loaded with ice, we felt the cold 



Mar. 1859. WESTERN SHORES OF BOOTHIA. 207 

severely. When our low doorway was carefully 
blocked up with snow, and the cooking-lamp alight 
the temperature quickly rose so that the walls 
became glazed, and our bedding thawed ; but the 
cooking over, or the doorway partially opened, it 
as quickly fell again, so that it was impossible to 
sleep, or even to hold one's pannikin of tea, with- 
out putting our mitts on, so intense was the cold ! 

On the 21st I visited our main depot laid out 
last October ; it was safe, but unfortunately had 
been carried far into Wrottesley Inlet, and only 
40 miles south of Bellot Strait. 

On the 22d an easterly gale prevented our 
marching, but we had the good fortune to shoot a 
bear, so consoled ourselves with fresh steaks, and 
the dogs with an ample feed of unfrozen flesh — a 
treat they had not enjoyed for many months. 

We coasted along a granitic land, deeply in- 
dented and fringed with islands, and found it to 
be the general characteristic of the Boothian 
shore from Bellot Strait, until we had accom- 
plished half the distance to the magnetic pole; 
limestone then appeared, and the remainder of 
our journey was performed along a low, straight 
shore, which afforded us much greater facility for 
sledging. 

Throughout the whole distance we found a 
mixture of heavy old ice and light ice of last 
autumn, in many places squeezed up into pack ; 



208 WAGES OF NATIVE BUILDERS. Chap. XII. 

but as we advanced southward aged floes were 
less frequently seen. 

On the first of March we halted to encamp at 
about the position of the magnetic pole — for no 
cairn remains to mark the spot. I had almost 
concluded that ray journey would prove to be 
a work of labor in vain, because hitherto no 
traces of Esquimaux had been met with, and, in 
consequence of tlie reduced state of our provis- 
ions and the wretched condition of the poor dogs 
— six out of the fifteen being quite useless — I 
could only advance one more march. 

But we had done nothing; more than look 
ahead ; Avhen we halted, and turned round, great 
indeed was my surprise and joy to see four men 
walking after us. Petersen and I immediately 
buckled on our revolvers and advanced to meet 
them. The natives halted, made fast their dogs, 
laid down their spears, and received us without 
any evidence of surprise. They told us they had 
been out upon a seal hunt on the ice, and were 
returning home : we proposed to join them, and 
all were soon in motion again; but another hour 
brought sunset, and we learned that their suow 
village of eight huts was still a long way ofl', so 
we hired them, at the rate of a needle for each 
Esquimaux, to build us a hut, which they com- 
pleted in an hour ; it was 8 feet in diameter, 5^ 
feet high, and in it we all passed the night. Per- 



Mar, 1859. INEOEMATION FEOM ESQUIMAUX. 209 

haps the records of architecture do not furnish 
another instance of a dwelling-house so cheaply 
constructed ! 

We gave them to understand that we were 
anxious to barter with them, and very cautiously 
approached the real object of our visit. A naval 
button upon one of their dresses afforded the op- 
portunity 5 it came, they said, from some white 
people who were starved upon an island where 
there are salmon (that is, in a river) ; and that the 
iron of which their knives were made came from 
the same place. One of these men said he had 
been to the island to obtain wood and iron, but 
none of them had seen the white men. Another 
man had been to " Ei-wil-lik " (Repulse Bay), and 
counted on his fingers seven individuals of Rae's 
party whom he remembered having seen. 

These Esquimaux had nothing to eat, and no 
other clothing than their ordinary double dresses 
of fur; they would not eat our biscuit or salt pork, 
but took a small quantity of bear's blubber and 
some water. They slept in a sitting posture, with 
their heads leaning forward on their breasts. Next 
morning we travelled about 10 miles further, by 
which time we were close to Cape Victoria ; be- 
yond this I would not go, much as they wished to 
lead us on ; we therefore landed, and they built 
us a commodious snow hut in half an hour ; this 
done, we displayed to them our articles for barter 
— knives, files, needles, scissors, beads, etc. — ex- 
18* 



210 BARTER ■WITH NATIVES. Chap. XII. 

pressed our desire to trade with them, and prom- 
ised to purchase everything which Ijclonged to 
the starved white men, if they would come to 
us on the morrow. Notwithstanding that the 
weather was now stormy and bitterly cold, two 
of the natives stripped off their outer coats of 
reindeer skin and bartered them for a knife each. 

Despite the gale which howled outside, we 
spent a comfortable night in our roomy hut. 

Next morning the entire village population 
arrived, amounting to about forty-five souls, from 
aged people to infants in arms, and bartering 
commenced very briskly. First of all we pur- 
chased all the relics of the lost expedition, consist- 
ing of six silver spoons and forks, a silver medal, 
the property of Mr. A. M'Donald, assistant surgeon, 
part of a gold chain, several buttons, and knives 
made of the iron and wood of the wreck, also 
bows and arrows constructed of materials obtained 
from the same source. Having secured these, we 
purchased a few frozen salmon, some seals' blubber 
and venison, but could not prevail upon them to 
part with more than one of their fine dogs. One 
of their sledges was made of two stout pieces of 
wood, which might have be(5n a boat's keel. 

All the old people recollected the visit of the 
'Victory.' An old man told me his name was 
"Ooblooria:" I recollected that Sir James Ross 
had employed a man of that name as a guide, and 
reminded him of it ; he was, in fact, the same in- 



Mar. 1859. INTELLIGENCE OF EEANKLIN'S SHIPS 211 

dividual, and he inquired after Sir James by liis 
Esquimaux name of "Agglugga." 

I inquired after the man who was furnished with 
a wooden leg by the carpenter of the 'Victory:' 
no direct answer was given, but his daughter was 
pointed out to me. Petersen explained to me 
that they do not like alluding in any way to the 
dead, and that, as my question was not answered, 
it was certain the man was no longer amongst the 
living. 

None of these people had seen the whites ; one 
man said he had seen their bones upon the island 
where they died, but some were buried. Petersen 
also understood him to say that the boat was 
crushed by the ice. Almost all of them had part 
of the plunder; they say they will be here when 
we return, and will trade more with us ; also that 
we shall find natives upon Montreal Island at the 
time of our arriving there. 

Next morning, 4th March, several natives came 
to us again. I bought a spear 63 feet long from a 
man who told Petersen distinctly that a ship hav- 
ing three masts had been crushed by the ice out 
in the sea to the west of King William's Island, 
but that all the people landed safely ; he was not 
one of those who were eye-witnesses of it ; the ship 
sunk, so nothing was obtained by the natives from 
her ; all that they have got, he said, came from 
the island in the river. The spear staff appears 
to have been part of the gunwale of a light boat. 



212 RAE'S STATEMENTS CONFIRMED. Chap. XII. 

One old man, " Oona-leo," made a rough sketca 
of the coast-line with his spear upon the snow, and 
said it was eight journc3'S to wlicre the ship sank, 
pointing in the direction of Cape Felix. I can 
make nothing out of his rude chart. 

The information w^e obtained bears out the 
principal statements of Dr. Rae, and also accounts 
for the disappearance of one of the ships ; but it 
gives no clue to the whereabouts of the other, nor 
the direction whence the ships come. One thing 
is tolerably certain — the crews did not at any 
time land upon the Boothian shore. 

These Esquimaux were all well clothed in rein- 
deer dresses, and looked clean; they appeared to 
have abundance of provisions, but scarcely a scrap 
of Avood was seen amongst them which had not 
come from the lost expedition. Their sledges, 
with the exception of the one already spoken of, 
were wretched little aflairs, consisting of two 
frozen rolls of seal-skins coated Avitli ice, and at- 
tached to each other by bones, which served as 
the crossbars. The men were stout, hearty fellows, 
and the women arrant thieves, but all were good- 
humored and friendly. The women were decid- 
edly plain ; in fact, this term would have been 
flattering to most of them ; yet there was a degree 
of vivacity and gentleness in the manners of some 
that soon reconciled us to these Arctic specimens 
of the fair sex. They had fine eyes and teeth, as 
well as very small hands, and the young girls had 



Mar. 1859. RETURN TO THE 'FOX.' 218 

a fresh rosy hue not often seen in combination 
with oUve complexions. 

Esquimaux mothers carry their infants on their 
backs within their large fur dresses, and where 
the babes can only be got at by pulling them out 
over the shoulder. Whilst intent upon my bar- 
gaining for silver spoons and forks belonging to 
Franklin's expedition^ at the rate of a few needles 
or a knife for each relic, one pertinacious old 
dame, after having obtained all she was likely to 
get from me for herself, pulled out her infant by 
the arm, and quietly held the poor little crea- 
ture (for it was perfectly naked) before me in the 
breeze, the temperature at the time being Q0° 
below freezing point ! Petersen informed me 
that she was begging for a needle for her child. 
I need not say I gave it one as expeditiously as 
possible ; yet sufficient time elapsed before the 
infant was again put out of sight to alarm me 
considerably for its safety in such a temperature. 
The natives, however, seemed to think nothing 
of what looked to me like cruel exposure of a 
naked baby. 

We now returned to the ship with all the speed 
we could command ; but stormy weather occa- 
sioned two days' delay, so that we did not arrive 
on board until the 14th March. Though consid- 
erably reduced in flesh, I and my companions were 
in excellent health, and blessed with insatiable 
appetites. On washing our faces, which had be- 



214 ARCTIC FARE. Ciiai'. XII. 

come perfectly black from the soot of om' blubber 
lamp, smiclry .scars, relics of frost-bites, appeared ; 
and the tips of our fingers, from constant frost- 
bites, had become as callous as if seared A\dth hot 
iron. 

In this journey of twenty-five days we trav- 
elled 360 geographical miles (420 English), and 
completed the discovery of the coast-line of con- 
tinental America, thereby adding about 120 miles 
to our charts. The mean temperature througliout 
the journey -was 30° below zero of Fahrenheit, or 
62° below the freezing point of water. 

On reaching the ship, I at once assembled my 
small crew, and told them of the information we 
had obtained, pointing out that there still re- 
mained one of the ships unaccounted for, and 
therefore it was necessary to carry out all our 
projected lines of search. 

During this journey I acquired the Arctic ac- 
complishment of eating frozen blubber, in deli- 
cate little slices, and vastly preferred it to frozen 
pork. At the present moment I do not think I 
could even taste it, but the same privation and 
hunger w^hich induced me to eat of such food 
would doubtless enable me again to partake of it 
very Mildly. 

I shot a couple of foxes which came playing 
about the dogs; conscious of their superior 
speed, they were very impudent, snapping at the 
dogs' tails, and passing almost under then* noses. 



]VlAR. 1859, CAPTAIN YOUNG'S JOUENEY. 215 

I shot these foxes, intending to eat them; but 
the dogs anticipated me with respect to one; 
the other we feasted off at our mess-table, and 
thought it by no means bad ; it was insipid, but 
decidedly better to our tastes than preserved 
meat. 

Captain Allen Young and his party had re- 
turned on board on the 3rd of March, having 
placed their depot upon the shore of Prince of 
Wales' Land, about 70 miles S.W. of the ship. 
Young found the ice in Bellot Strait so rough as 
to be impassable, and was obliged to adopt the 
lake route. Prince of Wales' Land was found to 
be composed of limestone ; the shore was low, 
and fringed for a distance of ten miles to sea- 
ward with an ancient land-floe. The remain- 
ing width of the strait between this land (North 
Somerset) and Prince of Wales' Land was about 
15 miles, and this space was composed of ice 
formed since September last ; this was the water 
we looked at so anxiously last autumn from 
Cape Bird and Pemmican Eock. His party lived 
in their tent, protected from the wind by snow 
walls, and, like ourselves, escaped with a few 
trivial frost-bites. So far all was very satisfac- 
tory, the general health good, and the eagerness 
of my crew to commence travelling quite charm- 
ing. 

Young proposed carrying out another depot to 
the north-west, in order to explore well up Peel 



216 SUGAR mSSlNG. Chap. XII. 

Strait, and would have started on the 17th, but 
the weather was too severe. The day was spent 
in a fruitless search for three casks of sugar — a 
serious and unaccountable deficiency — but, as 
it was important to replace them with as little 
delay as possible, Young set off on the 18th, al- 
though it blew a N.W. gale at the time, with two 
men and eighteen dogs, for Fury Beach ; failing 
to find the requisite quantity there, he will go on 
to Port Leopold. 



-*«ws 




Moonlight in the Arctic Kegions. 



Mar. 1839. DE. WALKEK'S SLEDGE JOURNEY. 217 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Dr. Walker's sledge journey — Snow-blindness attacks Young's party — 
Departure of all sledge-parties — Equipment of sledge-parties — Meet' 
the same party of natives — Intelligence of the second ship — My de- 
pot robbed — Part company from Hobson — Matty Island — Deserted 
snow-huts — Native sledges — Land on King William Land. 

Doctor Walker's zeal for travelling was not to be 
restrained; I therefore gladly availed myself of 
his willingness to go with a party to Cape Airey 
and bring back the depot of provisions left there 
in Augnst last. These trips will delay our spring 
journeys for a few days. 

During my absence from the ' Fox ' the wea- 
ther was often stormy, and temperature unusually 
low; the mean for the month of February was 
-36°, showing it to be one of the coldest on record. 
When possible the men were allowed to go out 
shooting, and obtain fifty or sixty ptarmigan and 
a hare ; a few foxes were taken in traps, and two 
reindeer were seen. 

Yesterday two bears came near the ship, but 
were frightened away by the dogs. Hobson shot 
three ptarmigan. To-day I rambled over the hills^ 
the weather being fine, and saw a hare. 

2Wi. — Continued fine weather. A couple 
more foxes and a lemming in its hrotvn coat have 
19 



218 DR. WALKER'S RETURN. Chap. XIII. 

been captured, and a hare and four ptarn-jigan shot. 
This fine bright weather seems to have awakened 
the lemmings and ermines ; their tracks, which 
were very rarel}^ seen during winter, are now 
tolerably numerous ; foxes appear in greater num- 
bers, probably following up the ptarmigan from 
the south. The thermometer ranges between 
zero and -20°; it has once been up to -]-13°- 
When exposed to a noonday sun against the 
ship's side it rises 50° higher. The earth-ther- 
mometer — placed 2 feet 2 inches beneath the 
surface — which gradually fell until the 10th of 
this month, has now begun to ascend ; its mini- 
mum was -|-2° ; much snow also lay over it, 6 feet 
deep at this season. 

On the 25th Dr. Walker and his party re- 
turned, not having been able to find the depot. 
They found a barrel of flour upon the beach a 
few miles south of Brentford Bay ; it appeared to 
have lain there for years, just inside a shingle 
projection, which kept off the ice pressure, so that 
it had not been forced up high upon the beach ; 
the ice which bore it there — probably from Port 
Leopold — had disappeared, and the cask was 
frozen into the shingle. The heading has been 
brought on board, but the " scribing " upon it is 
very indistinct, and unintelligible to us. The 
flour is of the ordinary description used in the 
navy, and known as " seconds j " most of it was 
good, and a plain pudding mad^ pf it for pur mess 



Mae. 1859. RETUEN OF CAPTAIN YOUNG. 219 

could not be distinguislied from fresh flour. A 
specimen has been preserved with the view of 
identifying it with the Fury Beach or Port Leo- 
pold stores of flour. With the exception of a soli- 
tary bear, the party saw no living creatures. The 
shore along which they travelled was a very low 
shingly limestone. 

Last evening I was delighted to see Young and 
his two dog-sledges heave in sight; he brought 
about 8 cwt. of sugar from Fury Beach, but not 
without much difficulty, owing to the roughness 
of the pack in Creswell Bay, and also to the 
breaking down of one of his sledges ; to avoid 
this pack he found it necessary to travel nearly 
all round Creswell Bay. Cape Garry he de- 
scribes as a gradually curved extent of flat land, 
and not the decided cape it appears to be upon 
the chart ; two reindeer were seen near it, and 
during the journey four bears ; no other animals 
were met with. His labors had been very severe ; 
one sledge broke down and all the sugar had to 
be piled upon the other : the consequence was 
that the sledge was so heavily loaded that it 
would only run freely after the dogs on smooth 
ice; and directly any hummocks were encoun- 
tered, the dogs, with their usual instinct, not to 
drag a sledge unless it does run freely, would lie 
down, and oblige Captain Young and his two men 
to unload and carry the packages, over the obsta- 
cle, upon their own backs. After this, snow-blind- 



220 SNOW BLINDNESS. Ciiap. XUI. 

ness came on ; Young and one of his men be- 
came blind as kittens; and the third man had to 
load, lead, and unload them, when these portages 
occurred. Young's Esquimaux dog-driver, Sam- 
uel, Avas quite blind Avhen the party reached the 
ship. Two dogs, not choosing to allow them- 
selves to be caught and put in harness, had been 
still left behind at the last encampment. 

There still remains at Fury Beach an immense 
stack of preserved vegetables and soups; the 
party supped off them and found them good. 
Young brought me back two specimen tins of 
"carrots plain" and "carrots and gravj^" All 
small casks and packages were covered with 
snow ; of the large ones which appeared through 
it, he saw thirty-four casks of flour, five of split 
jDeas, five of tobacco, and four of sugar. Only a 
very few tons of coals remained. There were 
two boats, a short four-oared gig and a large cutter; 
the former required nothing but caulking to make 
her serviceable, but the latter had a large portion 
of one bow" and side cut out, as if for making, or 
rejDairing flat sledges. No record was found. 

We have now enousrh su^irar to last us for seven 
or eight months, but by the survey of provisions 
which has just been completed, we find a defi- 
cienc}^ of many other articles, including three casks 
of salt beef Fortunately^ this is of no consequence 
as we have abundance of both salt and preserved 
meat, but it shows the alarming extent to which 



MsiR. 18.59. PREPARATION OP «LEDGE PARTIES. 221 

a negligent steward may mislead one. This un- 
fortunate man has now got scurvy ; want of exer- 
cise and fresh air is the apparent cause, combined 
with irregular living; the spirits have hitherto 
been in his charge. 

The bustle of preparation for the extended 
searching journeys has been exciting. Hobson's 
party and my own are now all prepared, and 
Young having returned, we propose setting out 
on the 2d April — God willing. Young's new 
sledge will be ready, and he will also start a few 
days after us. All our winter defences of snow, 
our porches, our deck-layer, and our external em- 
bankment, have been removed. Dr. Walker, of 
necessity, remains in charge of the ship, with two 
stewards, a cook, a carpenter, and a stoker. My 
party, as well as Hobson's, will be provisioned, in- 
cluding the depots, for an absence of about eightj'- 
four days ; but not being able to afford auxiliary 
or supporting sledge-pa-rties, much time will be 
occupied in transporting our depots further out, 
in order that we may start with as much as we 
can possibly carry, from the Magnetic Pole, be- 
sides leaving there a depot for our return. 

The declinometer was taken on board two days 
ago ; hourly observations have been made with it 
for more than five months : we can no longer 
spare any one for this interesting duty. 



'&' 



24:ih June. — One thing is certain, the wild sort 
19* 



222 THE 8TART. Chap. XHI. 

of tent-life "sve lead in Arctic exploration quite 
unfits one for such tame work as writing up a 
journal ; my present attempt will illustrate the 
fact, — yet with such ample materials what a 
deeply interesting volume might he written ! 
Since I last opened this familiar old diary — the 
repository alike of dry facts and the most trivial 
notes — winter has passed away, summer is far 
advanced, and the glorious sun is again returning 
southward. We too have endeavored to move on 
with the times and seasons. 

As for myself — I have visited Montreal Island 
completed the exploration and circuit of King 
William's Island, passing on foot through the only 
feasible North-West Passage ; but all this is as 
nothing to the interest attached to the Franhlin 
records picked up by Ilobson, and now safe in my 
possession ! We now know the fate of the -Erebus' 
and ' Terror.' The sole object of our voj'age has 
at length been completed, and we anxiously await 
the time when escape from these bleak regions 
will become practicable. 

The morning of April 2nd was inauspicious, but 
as the day advanced the weather improved, so 
that Ilobson and I were able to set out upon our 
journeys ; we each had a sledge drawn by f jur 
. men, besides a dog-sledge, and dog-driver. Mr. 
Petersen havins^ volunteered his services to drive 
my dogs, — an offer too valuable to be declined, 



Apr. 1859. EQUIPMENT OF SLEDGE PARTIES. 223 

— managed my dog-sledge throughout. Our five 
starveling puppies were harnessed, for the first 
time in their lives, to a small sledge which I drove 
myself, intending to sell them to the Esquimaux, 
if I could get them to drag their own supply of 
provisions so far. The procession looked imposing 

— it certainly was deeply interesting ; there were 
five sledges, twelve men, and seventeen dogs, the 
latter of all sizes and shapes. The ship hoisted 
the Eoyal Harwich Yacht flag, and our sledges 
displayed their gay silk banners; mine was a 
very beautiful one, given me by Lady Franklin ; 
it bears her name in white letters upon a red 
ground, and is margined with white embroider}?- ; 
it was worked by the sisters of Captain Collinson. 

The equipment of my sledge-party and the 
weights were as follows : those of Hobson and 
Young were almost precisely similar. 

lbs. weight. 

Two sledges and fitting complete .. .. .. .. 110 

Tent, waterproof blanket, floorcloth, two sleeping-robes, 

and six blanket sleeping-bags . . . . . . . . 90 

Cooking-utensils, shovel, saw, snow-knife, and sundry small 

articles . . . . . . , . . . . . . . 40 

Sledge-gun and ammunition . . . . , . . . 20 

Magnetic and astronomical instruments . . . . . . 60 

Six knapsacks, containing spare clothing . . . . . . 60 

Various tins and bags,~ in which provision and fuel were 

stored . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 

Articles for barter . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 

Provisions 930 

Total 1400 

The load for each man to drag was fixed at 



221 SLOW riJOGKESS. CiiAr. XIII. 

200 lbs., and for each dog 100 lbs. Our provi- 
sions consisted mainly of pcmmican, biscuit, and 
tea, with a small addition of boiled pork, rum, and 
some tobacco. 

The men being untrained to the work, and 
sledges heavily laden, our march was fatiguing 
and slow. We encamped that night upon the 
long lake. On the second day we reached the 
western sea, and upon the third, aided by our 
sledge sails, we advanced some miles beyond 
Arcedcckne Island. 

The various depots carried out with so much 
difficulty and danger in the autumn, were now 
gathered up as we advanced, until at length wc 
were so loaded as to be compelled to proceed with 
one-half at a time, going three times over the 
same ground. For six days this tedious mode 
of progression was persevered in, by which time 
(loth April) we reached the low limestone shore 
in latitude 71° 7' N., and wdiicli continues thence 
in almost a straight line southward for GO or 70 
miles. We now commenced laying down provi- 
sions for our consumption upon the return jour- 
ney; and the snow being unusuall}'' level, we were 
able to advance with the whole of our remaining 
1^-ovisions, amounting to nearly sixty days' allow- 
ance. 

Hitherto the temperature continued low, often 
nearly 30° below zero, and at times with cutting 
north winds, bright sun, and inten.selj- strong 



Apr. 1859. 



MEET OLD ACQUAINTANCE. 



225 



snow glare. Althoiigli we wore colored specta- 
cles, yet almost all suffered great inconvenience 
and considerable pain from inflamed eyes. Our 
faces were blistered, lips and hands cracked, — 
never were men more disfigured by the combined 
effects of bright sun and bitterly cold winds ; for- 
tunately no serious frost-bites occurred, but frost- 
bitten faces and fingers were universal. 

On the 20th April, in latitude 70^° N., we met 
two families of natives, comprising twelve indi- 
viduals ; their snow-huts were upon the ice three- 
quarters of a mile off shore, and their occupation 
was seal-hunting. They were the same people 
with whom I had communicated at Cape Victoria 
in February. 

Old Oo-na-lee laid his hands on Petersen's 
shoulders to measure their width, and said, " He 
is fatter now : " true enough, the February tem- 
perature and sharp marching had caused us both 
at that time to shrink considerably. 




Their snow-huts were built in the above form, 
the common entrance and both passages being 



226 SNOW HUTS OF NATIVES. Cn.r. XIII. 

just sufliciently high to get in without having 
to crawl upon our hands and knees. A slab of 
ice in the roof admitted sufficient light. A snow 
bank or bench two feet high, and occupying half 
the area of each hut, -was covered with reindeer 
skins, and formed the liimilj place of repose. An 
angular snow bench served as the kitchen table, 
and immediately beside it sat the lady of the 
establishment attending the stone lamp which 
stood thereon, and the stone-cooking vessel sus- 
pended over it. The lamp was a shallow open 
vessel, the fuel seal oil, and the wick dried moss. 
Her " tinder-box " was a little seal-skin bag of soft 
dry moss, and with a lump of iron pyrites and a 
broken file she struck fire upon it. I purchased 
the file because it was marked with the Govern- 
ment broad arrow. 

We saw two large snow shovels made of ma- 
hogany board, some long spear handles, a bow of 
English wood, two preserved-meat tins, and a deal 
case which might have once contained a large 
telescope or a barometer ; it measured 3 feet 1 
inch in length by 9 inches wide and ol inches 
deep ; there was no lid, but part of the brass 
hino;es remained. 

I also purchased a knife which had some indis- 
tinct markings upon it, such as ship's cutlasses or 
swords usually have ; the man told us it had been 
picked up on the shore near where a ship lay 
stranded ; that it was then about the length of 



Aps. 1859. INTELLIGENCE OF SECOND SHIP. 227 

his arm, but his countryman who picked it up 
broke it into lengths to make knives. 

After much anxious inquiry we learned that 
two ships had been seen by the natives of King 
William's Island ; one of them was seen to sink 
in deep water, and nothing was obtained from 
her, a circumstance at which they expressed 
much regret ; but the other was forced on shore 
by the ice, where they suppose she still remains, 
but is much broken. From this ship they have 
obtained most of their wood, &c. ; and Oot- 
loo-lik is the name of the place where she 
grounded. 

Formerly many natives lived there, now very 
few remain. All the natives have obtained plenty 
of the wood. 

The most of this information was given us by 
the young man who sold the knife. Old Oo-na- 
lee, who drew the rough chart for me in March, 
to show where the ship sank, now answered our 
questions respecting the one forced on shore ; not 
a syllable about her did he mention on the former 
occasion, although we asked whether they knew 
of only one ship ? I think he would willingly 
have kept us in ignorance of the wreck being 
upon their coasts, and that the young man unwit- 
tingly made it known to us. 

The latter also told us that the body of a man 
was found on board the ship ; that he must have 
been a very large man, and had long teeth ; this 



228 CARTER WITU NATIVES. Cn.u'. XIII. 

is all he recollected having been tokl, for he >vas 
quite a child at the time. 

They both told us it was in the fall of the year 
— that is, August or September — when the frhips 
were destroyed ; that all the white people went 
away to the " large river," taking a boat or boats 
with them, and that in the following winter their 
bones were found there. 

These two Esquimaux flimilies had been up as 
far north as the Tasmania Group'-' in latitude 
711^ N., and were returning to Neitchillee, hunt- 
ing seals by the way; those Ave met at Cape 
Victoria had alreadj^ gone there. The nearest 
natives to us at present, ihey said, were resid- 
ing at the island of Amitoke, ten days' journey 
distant from here. Can this Amitoke be Matty 
Island ? 

We purchased some seal's blubber and flesh, as 
well as their two only dogs ; but next morning 
Oo-na-lee repented his bargain, or feigned to do so, 
but as he came without the knife to exchange 
back we retained his dog ; he tried to steal a 
tin vessel off one of the sledges, and perhaps it 
was for the purpose of regaining our favor that 
he made known to us, just as we were starting, 
that his countrymen had followed ray homeward 

* These islands were so named by me, nt the request of Lady Franklin, 
in grateful acknowledgment of many proofs of afloctionatc sympatliy re- 
ceived from tlic colony over which lier husband presided for several years, 
and, in particular, of the large contributions raised there in aid of her 
expeditions of search. 



Apk. 1859. DEPOT HOBBED. 229 

track in March, discovering my dep6t of blub- 
ber, articles for barter, and two revolvers, and 
carried them all off to Neitchillee, — by no means 
pleasant intelligence ; their dogs must have 
enabled them to find the blubber by scenting 
it, for it was buried under 4 feet of snow, and 
strong winds obliterated all traces upon the 
surface. 

I was now glad we had purchased both the 
dogs of the men, as it would probably prevent 
their seeking for our depots to the northward ; 
the knowledge of the insecurity of all depots 
amongst these people will keep us on our guard 
for the future. I regretted the loss of the pistols, 
as it left my party with no other arms than two 
guns. 

Oo-na-lee told us when we first met him that 
one of his countr^^men was very sick ; not seeing 
a sick man in their huts, we forgot all about it 
until after starting, when Petersen interpreted to 
me Oo-na-lee's parting information, and told me 
how he described that the breech of the revolver 
turned round ; it then occurred to me that one of 
the men might have been wounded, — they had 
discovered how to cock the locks, and the pistols 
were loaded and capped. 

Oo-na-lee was well acquainted with the coast- 
line up to Bellot Strait, and had names for the 
different headlands, although he had never been 
so far north \ he made many inquiries about the 
20 



230 PART COMPANY FROM HOBSON. Chap. XIII. 

position of our .ship, her size, and the number of 
men. Had he been able to travel so far with hip 
wife and several j^oung children, and without 
sledge or dogs, I think he certainly would have 
gone up to Port Kennedy ; we did not give him 
any encouragement to do so. Ilis wife was one 
of the most importunate of the many women we 
saw at Cape Victoria in March. She was the 
woman who plucked out an infant by its arm 
from inside her dress, and exposed it regardless 
of -30° and a fresh wind, as I have previously 
told. 

The information respecting hotli the missing 
ships was most important, and it remained for us 
to discover, if possible, the stranded ship. 

Continuing our journey, we crossed a wide bay 
upon level ice, and the most perfectly smooth 
hard snow I ever saw ; there must have been 
much open water here late last autumn. Seven 
or eight snow huts, recently abandoned, were 
found near the magnetic pole. During the 25th, 
26th, and 27th, we were confined to our tents by 
a very heavy south-east gale, with severe cold. 
Early on the 28th we reached Cape Victoria; 
here Hobson and I separated. He marched di- 
rect for Cape Felix, King Vv^illiara's Land, whilst 
I kept a more southerly course. Not daring to 
leave depots upon this coast, we carried on our 
whole supply, intending to deposit a small portion 
upon the Clarence Islands. 



Apk. 1S59. MISS THE CLARENCE ISLANDS. 231 

Hobson was unwell 'when we parted, complain- 
ing of stitmess and pain in his legs ; neither of 
us then suspected the cause. I gave him direc- 
tions to search the west coast of King William's 
Island for the stranded ship and for records, and 
to act upon such information as he might obtain 
in this way, or from the natives ; but should that 
shore prove destitute of traces, to carry out if 
possible our original plan for the completion of 
discovery and search upon Victoria Land, com- 
prising the blank space between the extremes 
visited by Captain Collinson and Mr. Wynniatt. 

I soon found that m}^ party had to labor across 
a rough pack ; nor was it until the third day that 
we completed the traverse of the strait, and en- 
camped near to the entrance of Port Parry, in 
King William's Island. Although the weather was 
clear, and that by our reckoning we passed di- 
rectly over the assigned position of the two south- 
ern of the Clarence Islands, yet we saw nothing 
of them. 

A day was devoted to securing a depot in a 
huge mass of grounded ice, and in repairing and 
drying equipment, or, to speak more correctly, 
in getting rid of the ice which encumbered our 
sleeping bags and gear; this we effected by beat- 
ing them well and exposing them to the direct 
rays of the sun.. Magnetic and other observations 
gave me ample emploj^ment, the only immediate 



232 MATTY ISLAND. CuAr. XIIL 

result of ^vhicll was my being almost snow-blind 
for the two following days. 

On May 2ncl we set off again briskly; our load 
being diminished to thirty days' provisions, and 
the sledge sail set, we soon reached the land, and 
travelled along it for Cape Sabine ; it was vei y 
thick weather, and we were unable to see any 
distance in consequence of the mist and snow- 
drift. The following day was no better, and the 
shore, which we dared not leave to cross the bays, 
was extremely low. 

We soon discovered that we had strayed in- 
land ; but, guided by the wind, continued our 
course. Upon May 4th we descended into Wel- 
lington Strait, and the weather being tolerably 
clear, crossed over to the south-west extreme of 
Matty Island, in the hope of meeting with natives, 
no traces of them havinsr been met with since 
leaving Cape Victoria. Off tliis south-west point 
we found a deserted village of nearly twenty 
snow huts, besides several others, within a few 
miles upon either side of it; in all of them I 
found shavings or chips of different kinds of wood 
from the lost expedition ; they appeared to have 
been abandoned onh^ within a fortnight or three 
weeks. Abundance of blubber was gathered up 
to increase our stock of fuel, and had we en- 
camped here, the dogs would have feasted sump- 
tuously off the scraps and bones of seals strewed 
about. 



Mat, 1859. NATIVE SLEDGES. 233 

The runners (or sides) of some old sledges left 
here were very ingeniously formed out of rolls of 
seal-skin, about 31 feet long, and flattened so as to 
be 2 or 3 inches wide and 5 inches high ; the seal- 
skins appeared to have been well soaked and then 
rolled up, flattened into the required form and al- 




lowed to freeze. The underneath part was coated 
with a mixture of moss and ice laid smoothly on 
by hand before being allowed to freeze, the moss, 
I suppose, answering the purpose of hair in mortar, 
to make the compound adhere more firmly. 

From this spot the shore-line of Matty Island 
turned sharply to the N.N.E. ; there were some 
considerable islands to the east, but thinking the 
most southerly of this group, named "Owut-ta" 
by the Esquimaux, the most likely place to find 
the natives, I pushed on in that direction until 
we encamped. Thick fog enveloped us for the 
next two days ; we could not find the island, but 
found a very small islet near it, ofl" which was 
another snow-village very recently abandoned, 
the sledge tracks plainly showing that the inhab- 
itants had gone to the E.N.E., which is straight for 
Neitchillee. It was now evident that these places 
of winter resort were deserted, and that here at 
least we should not find any natives ; I was the 
20* 



234 NATIVE HUTS. Caxp. XIII. 

more sorry at having missed them, as, from the 
quantit}' of wood chips about the huts, they prob- 
ably had visited the stranded ship alluded to by 
the last Esquimaux we had met, and the route to 
which lies up an inlet visible from here, and then 
overland three or four days' journey to the west- 
ward, until the opposite coast of King Wilham's 
Land is reached. 

The largest huts measured 12 feet in diameter, 
by 6 or 7 feet high ; the greater part were con- 
structed in pairs, having a passage 20 or 25 feet 
long, serving as the common entrance ; where the 
passage divides into two branches, there was a 
small hut, which served as a sort of ante-chamber 
for the reception of such articles as were intended 
to remain frozen. 



:Mat, 1859. MEET ESQUIMAUX. 235 



CHAPTER Xiy. 

Meet Esquimaux — News of Franklin's people — Frighten a solitary 
party — Eeach the Great Fish.Eiver — On Montreal Island — Total 
absence of all relics — Examine Ogle Peninsula — Discover a skeleton 
— Vagueness of Esquimaux information — Cape Herschel — Cairn. 

7M May. — To avoid snow-blindness, we com- 
menced night-marching. Crossing over from 
Matty Island towards the King William Island 
shore, we continued our march southward until 
midnight, when we had the good fortune to arrive 
at an inhabited snow-villao'e. We found here ten 

o 

or twelve huts and thirty or forty natives of King 
William's Island ; I do not think any of them had 
ever seen white people alive before, but they 
evidently knew us to be friends. We halted at a 
little distance, and pitched our tent, the better to 
secure small articles from being stolen whilst we 
bartered with them. 

I purchased from them six pieces of silver 
plate, bearing the crests or initials of Franklin, 
Crozier, Fairholme, and McDonald ; they also sold 
us bows and arrows of English woods, uniform and 
other buttons, and offered us a heavy sledge made 
of two short stout pieces of curved wood, which 
no mere boat could have furnished them with; but 



23 G rURCriASE OF EELICS. Chap. XIV. 

this of course wo could not take away ; the silver 
spoons and forks were readily sold for four needles 
each. 

They were most obliging and peaceably dis- 
posed, but could not resist the temptation to steal, 
and were importunate to barter everything they 
possessed; there was not a trace of fear, every 
countenance was lighted up with joy ; even the 
children were not shy, nor backward either, in 
crowding about us, and poking in everywhere. 
One man got hold of our saw, and tried to retain 
it, holding it behind his back, and presenting his 
knife in exchange; we might have had some trou- 
ble in getting it from him, had not one of my 
men mistaken his object in presenting the knife 
towards me, and run out of the tent with a gun 
in his hand ; the saw was instantly returned, and 
these poor people seemed to think they never 
could do enoui2:li to convince us of their fricndli- 
ness ; they rej^eatedly tapped me gently on the 
breast, repeating the words "Kammik toomee" 
(We are friends). 

Having obtained all the relics they possessed, 
I purchased some seal's flesh, blubber, fi-ozen 
venison, dried and frozen salmon, and sold some 
of m.y puppies. They told us it was five days' 
journey to the wreck, — one day up the inlet 
still in sight, and four days overland ; this would 
carry them to the western coast of King William 
Land ; they added that but little now remained 



Mav, 1859. NEV/S or FRANKLIN'S PEOPLE. 207 

of the wreck which v>^as accessible, their coimtry- 
men having carried ahiiost everything away. In 
answer to an inquiry, they said she was without 
masts; the question gave rise to some laughter 
amongst them, and they spoke to each other about 
fire^ from which Petersen thought they had burnt 
the masts through close to the deck in order to 
get them down. 

There had been many hooJcs they said, but all 
have long ago been destroyed by the weather ; 
the ship was forced on shore in the fall of the 
year by the ice. She had not been visited during 
this past winter, and an old woman and a boy 
were shown to us who were the last to visit the 
wi'eck ; they said they had been at it during the 
winter of 1857-8. 

Petersen questioned the woman closely, and 
she seemed anxious to give all the information 
in her power. She said many of the white men 
dropped by the way as they went to the Great 
River ; that some were buried and some were not ; 
they did not themselves witness this, but discov- 
ered their bodies durino- the winter followinii;. 

We could not arrive at any approximation to 
the numbers of the white men nor of the years 
elapsed since they were lost. 

This was all the information we could obtain, 
and it was with great difficulty so much could be 
gleaned, the dialect being strange to Petersen, and 
the natives far more inclined to ask questions 



238 JOURNEY CONTINUED. Cuap. XIV. 

than to answer them. They as.sured us we should 
find natives upon the south shore of King V/il- 
liani's Island only three days' journey from here, 
and also at Montreal Island ; moreover they said 
we miorht lind some at the wreck. For these 
reasons I did not prolong my stay with them Ije- 
yond a couple of hours. They seemed to have 
but little intercourse with other communities, not 
having heard of our visit to the Boothians two 
months before ; one man even asked Petersen if 
he had seen his brother, who lived in Boothia, 
not having; heard of him since last summer. 

It was quite a relief to get away from these 
good-humored, no'i^y thieves, and rather difficult 
too, as some of them accompanied us for miles. 
They had abundance of food, were well clothed, 
and are a finer race than those Avho inhabit North 
Greenland, or Pond's Inlet: the men had their 
hair cropped short, with the exception of one 
long, straggling lock hanging down on each side 
of the face ; like the Boothians, the women had 
lines tattooed upon their cheeks and chins. 

We now proceeded round a bay which I named 
Latrobe in honor of the late Governor of Victo- 
ria, and of his brother, the head of the Moravian 
Church in London, both esteemed friends of 
Franklin. 

Finding the "Mathison Island" of Eae to be a 
flat-topped hill, we crossed over low land to the 
west of it, and upon the morning of the 10th May 



Mat, 1859. FRIGHTEN A SOLITARY PARTY. 239 

reached a single snow liut oiF Point Booth. I 
was quite astonished at the number of poles and 
various articles of wood lying about it, also at the 
huge pile of walrus' and reindeer's flesh, seal's 
blubber, and skins of various sorts. We had 
abundance of leisure to examine these exterior 
articles before the inmates would venture out; 
they were evidently much alarmed by our sudden 
appearance. 

A remarkably fine old dog was tied at the en- 
trance — the line being made fast within the 
long passage — and although he wagged his tail, 
and received us as old acquaintances, we did not 
like to attempt an entrance. At length an old 
man and an old woman appeared ; they trem- 
bled with fear, and could not, or would not, say 
anything except " Kammik toomee :" we tried 
every means of allaying their fears, but their 
wits seemed paralyzed, and we could get no infor- 
mation. We asked where they got the wood ? 
They purchased it from their countrymen. Did 
they know the Great River ? Yes, but it was a 
long way off. Were there natives there now? 
Yes. They even denied all knowledge of white 
people having died upon their shores. A fine 
young man came out of the hut, but we could 
learn nothing of him ; they said they had noth- 
ing to barter, except what we saw, although we 
tempted them by displaying our store of knives 
and needles. 



240 GREAT FISH lUVER. Cnxy. XIV. 

The wind was strong and fair, and the morning 
intensely cold, and as I could not hope to over- 
come the fears of these poor people without en- 
camping, and staying perhaps a day with them, I 
determined to push on, and presented the old 
lady with a needle as a parting gift. 

The principal articles which caught my atten- 
tion here were eight or ten fir poles, varying in 
length from 5 to 10 feet, and up to 2h inches in 
diameter (these were converted into spear handles 
and tent poles), a kayak paddle constructed out 
of the blade of two ash oars, and two large snow 
shovels 4 feet long, made of thin plank, painted 
white or pale yellow ; these might have been 
the bottom boards of a boat. There were many 
smaller articles of wood. 

Half a mile further on we found seven or eight 
deserted snow huts. Bad weather had now fairly 
set in, accompanied b}^ a most unseasonable de- 
gree of cold. On the morning of the 12th May 
we crossed Point Ogle, and encamped upon the 
ice in the Great Fish River the same evening : 
the cold and the darkness of our more southern 
latitude, having obliged us to return to daj-t ravel- 
ling. All the 13th we were imprisoned in our 
tent by a most furious gale, nor was it until late 
on tlie morning of the ,14th that we could pro- 
ceed ; that evening we encamped 2 miles from 
some small islands which lie off the north end of 
Montreal Island. 



Mat, 1859. MONTEEAL ISLAND, 241 

On the morning of the 15th we made only a 
short march of 6 miles, as one of the men suffered 
severely from snow-blindness, and I was anxious 
to recommence night-travelling; encamped in a 
little bay upon the N.E. side of Montreal Island. 
The same evening we again set out, although it 
was blowing very strongly, and " snowing for a 
wager," as the men expressed it, but it was only 
necessary for us to keep close along the shore of 
the island : we discovered, however, a narrow and 
crooked channel which led us through to the west 
side of the island, and, one of the men appearing 
seriously ill, we encamped about midnight. 

Whilst encamped this day, explorations were 
made about the N.E. quarter of the island ; islets 
and rocks were seen to abound in all directions ; 
eventually it proved to be a separate island upon 
which we had encamped. The only traces or 
relics of Europeans found were the following ar- 
ticles, discovered by Petersen, beside a native 
mark (one large stone set upright on the top 
of another), at the east side of the Main- — or 
Montreal — island : — A piece of preserved meat 
tin, two pieces of iron hoop, some scraps of cop- 
per, and an iron-hoop bolt. These probably are 
part of the plunder obtained from the boat, and 
were left here until a more favorable opportunity 
should offer, or perhaps necessity should compel 
the depositor to return for them. 

All the 16th ive were unable to move, not only 
21 Q 



242 SKA UCJI I'OU IIF. Lies. Cu.v. .XIV. 

because Hampton was ill, but the weather was 
extremely bad, and snow thickly falling with tem- 
perature at zero; certainly strange weather for 
the middle of May ! We have not had a single 
clear day since the 1st of the month. 

On the 17th the weather, though dull, was 
clear, so Mr. Petersen, Thompson, and I, set off 
with the dog-sledge to complete the examination 
of Montreal Island, leaving the other three men 
with the tent : we hoped also to find natives, but 
had not seen any recent traces of them since 
passing Point Booth. Petersen drove the dog- 
sled ^e close alons^ shore round the island to the 
south, and as far up the east side as to meet our 
previously explored portion of it, whilst Thomp- 
son and I walked along on the land, the one close 
down to the beach, and the other higher up, ex- 
amining the more conspicuous parts: in this order 
we traversed the remaining portion of the i.'^land. 

Although the snow served to conceal from us 
any traces which might exist in hollows or shel- 
tered situations, yet it rendered all objects in- 
tended to serve as marks proportionably con- 
spicuous ; and we may remember that it was in 
its winter garb that the retreating crews saw 
Montreal Island, precisely as we ourselves saw it. 
The island was almost covered with native marks, 
usually of one stone standing upright upon an- 
other, sometimes consisting of three stones, but 
ypry rarely of a greater number. 



Mat, 1859. TOTAL ABSENCE OF KELICS. 2^3 

No trace of a cairn could be found. 

In examining, with pickaxe and shovel, a col- 
lection of stones which appeared to be arranged 
artificially, we found a quantity of seal's blubber 
buried beneath ; this old Esquimaux cache was 
near the S.E. point of the island. The interior of 
the island and the principal islets adjacent were 
also examined without success, nor was there the 
slightest evidence of natives having been here 
durino; the winter : it is not to be wondered at 
that we returned in the evening to our tent some- 
what dispirited. The total absence of natives 
was a bitter disappointment; circles of stones, 
indicating the sites of their tenting places in sum- 
mer, were common enough, 

Montreal Island is of primary rock, chiefly grey 
gneiss, traversed with whitish vertical bands in a 
N. and S. direction (by them I often directed my 
route when crossing the island). It is of con- 
siderable elevation, and extremely rugged. The 
low beaches and grassy hollows were covered 
with a foot or two of hard snow, whilst all the 
level, the elevated, or exposed parts were swept 
perfectly bare ; had a cairn, or even a grave ex- 
isted (raised as it must be, the earth being frozen 
hard as rock), we must at once have seen it. If 
any were constructed they must have been lev- 
elled by the natives ; every doubtful appearance 
was examined with the pickaxe. 

A remark made by my men struck me as being 



244 SHOOTING GAME. CuAr. XIV. 

shrewd ; they judgecl from the washed appear- 
ance of the rock upon the east side of Montreal 
Island that it must be often exposed to a con- 
siderable sea, such as would effectually remove 
everything not placed far above its reach ; when 
looking over the smooth and frozen expanse one 
is apt to forget this. 

Since our first landing upon King William's 
Island we have not met with any heavy ice ; all 
along its eastern and southern shore, together 
with the estuary of this great river, is one vast 
unbroken sheet formed in the early part of last 
winter where no ice previoiisli/ existed ; this I fancy 
(from the accounts of Back and Anderson) is 
unusual, and may have caused the Esquimaux to 
vary their seal-hunting localities. Mr. Petersen 
suggested that they might have retired into the 
various inlets after the seals ; and therefore I 
determined to cross over into Barrow's Inlet as 
soon as we had examined the Point Ogle Penin- 
sula. 

Upon Montreal Island I shot a hare and a brace 
of willow'-grouse. Up to this date we had shot 
during our journey only one bear and a couple 
of ptarmigan. The first recent traces of reindeer 
were met with here. 

On the 18th May crossed over to the mainland 
near Point Duncan, but Hampton again complain- 
ing, I was obliged to encamp. When away from 
my party, and exploring along the shore towards 



Mat, 1859. RETURN JOURNEY COMMENCED. 245 

Elliot Bt).y, I saw a herd of eight reindeer and 
succeeded in shooting one of them. In the 
evenino; Petersen saw another. Some willow- 
grouse also were seen. Here we found much 
more vegetation than upon King William's Isl- 
and, or any other Arctic land I have yet seen. 

On the evening of the 19th we commenced 
our return journey, but for the three following 
weeks our route led us over new ground. 
Hampton being unable to drag, I made over 
my puppy-team to him, and was thus left free 
to explore and fully examine every doubtful 
object along our route. I shall not easily for- 
get the trial my patience underwent during the 
six weeks that I drove that doer-sled i]!;e. The 
leader of my team, named " Omar Pasha," v/as 
very Avilling, but very lame; little "Rose" was 
coquettish, and fonder of being caressed than 
whipped ; from some cause or other she ceased 
growing when only a few n:onths old ; she was 
therefore far too small for heavy work ; " Darky" 
and "Missy" were mere pups; and last of all 
came the two wretched starvelings, reared in the 
winter, "Foxey" and " Dolly." Each dog had its 
own harness, formed of strips of canvas, and was 
attached to the sledge by a single trace 12 
feet long. None of them had ever been yoked 
before, and the amount of cunning and perversity 
they displayed to avoid both the whip and the 
work, was quite astonishing. They bit through 
21* 



246 PROCEEDINGS OF THE DOGS. Cnxr. XIV. 

their traces, and hid away under the sledge, or 
leaped over one another's backs, so as to get into 
the middle of the team out of the way of my 
whip, until the traces became plaited up, and the 
dogs were almost knotted together ; the conse- 
quence was I had to halt every few minutes, pull 
off my mitts, and, at the risk of frozen fingers, 
disentangle the lines. I persevered, however, and, 
without breaking any of their bones, succeeded 
in getting a surprising amount of work out of 
them. Hobson drove his own do^jr-sledG-e like- 
wise, and as long as we were together we helped 
each other out of difficulties, and they were fre- 
quently occurring, for, apart from those I have 
above mentioned, directly a dog-sledge is stopped 
by hummock, or sticks flist in deep snow, the 
dogs, instead of exerting themselves, lie down, 
looking perfectly delighted at the circumstance, 
and the driver has to extricate the sledge with a 
hearty one, two, three haul ! and apply a little 
gentle persuasion to set his canine team in motion 
again. 

Having searched the east shore of this land 
for 7 or 8 miles farther north, we crossed over 
into Barrow's Inlet, and spent a day in its ex- 
amination, but not a trace of natives was met 
with. 

Eegaining the shore of Dease and Simpson's 
Strait, some miles to the west of Point Kichard- 
son, we crossed over to King William's Island 



Mat, 1859. EXAMINE OGLE PENINSULA. 247 

upon the morning of the 24th, striking in upon 
it a short distance west of the Peffer River. 
The south coast was closely examined as we 
marched along towards Cape Herschel. Upon 
a conspicuous point, to the westward of Point 
Gladman, a cairn nearly five feet high was seen, 
which, although it did not appear to be a recent 
construction, was taken down, stone by stone, and 
carefully examined, the ground beneath being 
broken up with the pickaxe, but nothing was 
covered. 

The ground about it was much exposed to the 
winds, and consequently devoid of snow, so that 
no trace could have escaped us. Simpson does 
not mention having landed here, or anywhere 
upon the island except at Cape Herschel, yet it 
seemed to me strange that natives should con- 
struct such a mark here, since a huge boulder, 
which would equally serve their purpose, stood 
upon the same elevation, and within a couple of 
hundred yards. We had previously examined a 
similar but smaller cairn, a few miles to the east- 
ward. 

We were now upon the shore along which 
the retreating crews must have marched. My 
sledges of course travelled upon the sea-ice 
close along the shore ; and, although the depth 
of snow which covered the beach deprived us 
of almost every hope, yet we kept a very sharp 
look-out for traces, nor were we unsuccessful. 



248 A SKELETON DlSCOVEREb. Cii-vr. XIV. 

Sliorlly ufler inidniglil. of the 24th May, when 
bIowI)' ^v;^lkillti; alon,!!; a gravel ridge near the 
beach, ^vhi(•h the Avinds kei)t partially hare of 
snow, 1 came upon a human skeleton, partly 
exposed, with here :ind there a lew fragments 
of clothing appearing through the snow. The 
skeleton — now perfectly bleached — was l3'ing 
upon its face, the limljs and smaller bones either 
disseveied or gnawed mnviiv by small animals. 

A most careful examination of the spot was of 
course made, the snow I'cmoved, and every scrap 
of clothing gatiiered np. A pocket-book aflbrded 
strong grounds of hope that some information 
might be suhscMjueully obtained respecting the 
nnfortunate owner and the calamitous march of 
the lost ci'cws, Init at the time it was frozen hard. 
The substance of that which we gleaned upon 
the spot may thus be sumuied up : — 

This victim was a young man, slightly built, 
and perhaps above the connnon height; the dress 
appeared to be that of a steward or otlicer's ser- 
vant, the lt)Ose bow-knot In which liis ncck-hnnd- 
kerchief was tied not being used by seamen or 
oHiccrs. In every particular the dress confirmed 
our conjectures as to his rank or ollice in the late 
expedition, — the blue jacket with slashed sleeves 
and hraided edging, and the pilot-cloth great-coat 
with ])lain covered buttons. We found, also, a 
clothes-brush near, and a horn pocket-comb. Tliis 
poor man seems to have selected the bare ridge 



May. 1859. VAGUENESS OF INFORMATION. 249 

top, as affording the least tiresome walking, and 
to have fallen upon his face in the position in 
which we found him. 

It was a melancholy truth that the old woman 
spoke when she said, " they fell down and died as 
they walked along." 

I do not think the Esquimaux had discovered 
this skeleton, or they would have carried off the 
brush and comb : superstition prevents them from 
disturbing their own dead, but would not keep 
them from appropriating the property of the 
white man if in any way useful to them. Dr, 
Rae obtained a piece of flannel, marked "F. D. Y., 
1845," from the Esquimaux of Boothia or Repulse 
Bay : it had doubtless been a part of poor Des 
Voeux's garments. 

At the time of our interview with the natives 
of King William's Island, Petersen was inclined to 
think that the retreat of the crews took place in 
the fall of the year, some of the men in boats, and 
others walking along the shore ; and as only five 
bodies are said to have been found upon Montreal 
Island with the boat, this fact favored his opinion, 
because so small a number could not have dragged 
her there over the ice, although they could very 
easily have taken her there by water. Subse- 
quently this opinion proved erroneous. I mention 
it because it shows how vague our information 
was — indeed all Esquimaux accounts are natu- 
rally so — and how entirely we were dependent 



250 CAPE IIERSCIIEL. Citap. XIV. 

upon our own exertions for bringing to light the 
mystery of their fate. 

The information obtained by Dr. Piae was 
mainl}'^ derived second-hand from the Fit<h River 
Esquimaux, and should not be confounded with 
that received b}^ us from the King William's 
Island Esquimaux. These people told us they 
did not find the bodies of the white men (that is, 
they did not know any had died upon the march) 
until the following winter. This is probably true, 
as it is only in winter and early spring they can 
travel overland to the west shore, or that they 
make a practice of wandering along the shore in 
search of seals and bears. 

The remains of those who died in the Fish 
River may very probably have been discovered in 
the summer shortly after their decease. 

Along the south coast of King William's Land, 
as upon the mainland, I Avas sadly disappointed in 
my expectation of meeting natives. We found 
only six or eight deserted snow huts, showing that 
they had recently been here, and consequently 
there was the less chance of meetino; with them 
on our further progress, as the season had now 
arrived when they seek the rivers and the favor- 
ite haunts and passes of the reindeer in their 
northern migration. 

Hobson was however upon the western coast, 
and I hoped to fmd a note left for me at Cape 
Herschel containing some piece of good news. 



Mat, 1859. SIMPSON'S CAIRN. 251 

After minutely examining the intervening coast- 
line^ it was with strong and reasonable hope I 
ascended the slope which is crowned by Simpson's 
conspicuous cairn. This summit of Cape Herschel 
is perhaps 150 feet high, and about a quarter of 
a mile within the low stony point which projects 
from it, and on which there was considerable ice 
pressure and a few hummocks heaped up, the first 
we had seen for three weeks. Close round this 
point, or by cutting across it as we did, the re- 
treating parties must hsiwe passed; and the op- 
portunity afforded by the cairn of depositing in 
a known position — and that, too, where their 
own discoveries terminated — some record of 
their own proceedings, or, it might be, a por- 
tion of their scientific journals, would scarcely 
have been disre2;arded. 

Simpson makes no mention of having left a 
record in this cairn, nor would Franklin's people 
have taken any trouble to find it if he had left 
one ; but what now remained of this once " pon- 
derous cairn " was only four feet high ; the south 
side had been pulled down and the central stones 
removed, as if by persons seeking for something 
deposited beneath. After removing the snow with 
which it was filled, and a few loose stones, the 
men laid bare a large slab of limestone ; with 
difficulty this was removed, then a second, and 
also a third slab, when they came to the ground. 
For sometime we persevered with a pickaxe in 



252 SIMPSON'S CAIRN. Chap. XIV. 

breaking up the frozen earth, but nothing what- 
ever was found, nor any trace of European visitors 
in its vicinity. There were many old caches and 
low stone walls, such as natives would use to lurk 
behind for the purpose of shooting reindeer ; and 
we noticed some recent tracks of those animals 
which had crossed direct hither from the main- 
land. 



I 



i 



Mat, 1859. THE CAIRN EMPTY. 253 



CHAPTER XV. 

The cairn found empty — Discover Hobson's letter — Discovery of Cro- 
zier's record — The deserted boat — Articles discovered about the boat 
— The skeletons and relics — The boat belonged to the ' Erebus ' — Con- 
jectures. 

As the Esquimaux of this land, as well as those of 
Boothia and Pond's Inlet, have long since given 
up the practice of building stone dwellings — 
passing their winters in snow huts, and summers 
in tents — no other traces of them than those de- 
scribed remain ; so that when or in what num- 
bers they may have been here one cannot form 
any opinion, the same caches and hiding-places 
serving for generations. 

I cannot divest myself of the belief that so7ue 
record zvas left here by the retreating crews, and 
perhaps some most valuable documents which 
their slow progress and fast failing strength would 
have assured them could not be carried much fur- 
ther. If any such were left they have been dis- 
covered by the natives, and carried off, or thrown 
away as worthless. Doubtless the natives, when 
they ascertained that famine and fatigue had 
caused many of the white men " to fall down and 
die " upon their fearful march, and heard, as they 
22 



254 APrEARANCE OF CAIRNS. Chap. XV. 

might have clone, of its fatal termination upon 
the mainland, lost no time in following up their 
traces, examining every spot where they halted, 
every mark they pnt up, or stone displaced. 

It is easy to tell whether a cairn has been put 
up or touched within a moderate period of years; 
if very old, the outer stones have a weathered 
appearance, lichens will have grown upon the 
sheltered portions and moss in the crevices ; but 
if recently disturbed, even if a single stone is 
turned upside down, these appearances are al- 
tered. If a cairn has been recently built it. will 
be evident, because the stones picked up from 
the neighborhood would be bleached on top by 
the exposure of centuries, whilst underneath they 
would be colored by the soil in which they were 
imbedded. To the eye of the native hunter these 
marks of a recent cairn are at once apparent : 
and unless Simpson's cairn (built in 1839) had 
been disturbed by Crozier, I do not think the 
Esquimaux would have been at the trouble of 
pulling it down to plunder the cache ; but hav- 
ing commenced to do so, would not have left any 
of it standing, unless they found ivhat they sought. 

I noticed with great care the appearance of the 
stones, and came to the conclusion that the cairn 
itself was of old date, and had been erected many 
years ago, and that it was reduced to the state in 
which we found it by people having broken down 
one side of it ; the displaced stones, from being 



May, 1859. INTEREST ATTACHING TO THE CAIEN. 255 

turned over, looking far more fresh than those in 
that portion of the cairn which had been left stand- 
ing. It was with a feeling of deep regret and 
much disappointment that I left this spot without 
finding some certain record of those martyrs to 
thpir country's fame. Perhaps in all the wide 
world there will be few spots more hallowed in 
the recollection of English seamen than this cairn 
on Cape Herschel. 

A few miles beyond Cape Herschel the land be- 
comes very low ; many islets and shingle-ridges 
lie far off the coast ; and as we advanced we met 
with hummocks of unusually heavy ice, showing 
plainly that we were now travelling upon a far 
more exposed part of the coast-line. We were 
approaching a spot where a revelation of intense 
interest was awaiting me. 

About 12 miles from Cape Herschel I found a 
small cairn built by Hobson's party, and containing 
a note for me. He had reached this his extreme 
point, six days previously, without having seen 
anything of the wreck, or of natives, but he had 
found a record — the record so ardentlv sou2:ht 
for, of the Franklin Expedition — at Point Vic- 
tory, on the N.W.- coast of King William's Land. 

That record is indeed a sad and touching relic 
of our lost friends, and, to simplify its contents, I 
will point out separately the double story it so 
briefly tells. In the first place, the record j)aper 
was one of the printed forms usually supplied 












-,^ 



s^of 






CjiZ_ t<^ 



> 




.184) 



Lat. > () ° .5- AT Long. G±lj^^^_Jf^ 



9 



f^ 



k. 



"gOu '- '^—t^f /t^<. &^&fe'!--<-M« — ^ 



lo-_ 



£4/- 






^A^^>S^ 



</-^ . ^ 



■g- .^^ /tn^^^^pg. 






-^ 



-A/^ 



>_, w — eC^^J . — 



YT^^. 




\ ^ /^ /fcc iH^-«'^t:^ ^ 6Lr..^^......t>^i^ JU^. "^ 



yV "" ^^ ^ — ^ 'W^c^ 









j WH0EV2R nnas this paper is requested to forward it to tlie Secretary ofj y'^ '^ 

the Admiraicy, London, with a note of the time and place at which it nvar^^S^ O 
found: or, if more convenient, to dehver it for that purpose to the BritisfTS ^\\ 1 
Consul at the nearest Port. i ^ ■ J ^ 

QuiNcoNQUE trouvera ce papier est prie d'y mai'quer le terns et lieu ouo ^^ 
il I'aura trouvd, et de le faire parvenir au plutot au Secretaire de TAmira 
Britannique a Londres. t i <i 

CuAi,(yJiERA que hallare este Papel, se le suplica de enviarlo al Secretarl 
del Almirantazgo, en Londrds, con una nota del tiempo y del lugar, 
donde se hajld. 

Een ieder die dit Papier mogt vinden, wordt hiermede verzogt, om het^ 
zelve, ten spoedigste, te willen zenden aan den Heer Minister van ^ 
Marine der NederJanden in 's Gravenhage, of wel aan den Secretaris de^ 
Britsche Admiraliteit, te London, en daar by te voegen eene Nota^^j \ 
■ ^Xjjahoudende de tyd en de plaats alwaar dit Papier is gevonden geworden. ^^^ i^ °^ 

r - "^ i-^ ^ J 

^ FiNDEREN af dette Papiir ombedes, naar Leilighed gives, at sende J J^i f 

j) J ., sanune til Admiralitets Secretairen i London, eller noermeste Embedsmand ■ ^ ^ 

'^ 'f^ LDanmark, Norge, eller Sverrig. Tiden og Stoedit hvor dette er fundet '"^ 

s^ j.^ onskes venskabeligt paategnet. ~^ 

Wer diesen Zettel findet, wird hier-durch ersucht denselben an den __f 
Secretair des Admiralitets in London einzusenden, mit gefalliger angabe i 
an welchen ort und za welcber zeit er gefundet worden ist. y^\ r\ -^ ft ? '^ 



^3^ 



'4I^' 




256 DISCOVERY OF GOKES RECORD. Chap. XV. 

to discovery ships for the purpose of being en- 
closed in bottles and thrown overboard at sea, in 
order to ascertain the set of tlie currents, blanks 
being left for the date and position ; any person 
finding one of these records is requested to for- 
ward it to the Secretary of the Admiralty, with a 
note of time and place ; and this request is print- 
ed upon it in six different languages. Upon it 
was written, apparently by Lieutenant Gore, as 
follows : — 



28 of May, ( H. M. ships * Erebus ' and ' Terror ' •wintered in the 
1847. 1 ice in lat. 70° 05' N. : lon<:. 98° 23' W. 



Having wintered in 184C-7at Beechcy Island, in lat. 74° 43' 28" N., 
long. 91° 39' 15" W., after having ascended Wellington Channel to 
lat. 77°, and returned by the west side of Cornwallis Island. 
" Sir John Franklin commanding the expedition. 
" All well. 

" Party consisting of 2 officers and 6 men left the ships on Monday 
24th May, 1847. 

" Gm. Gore, Lieut. 

" Chas. F. Des V<eux, Mate." 

There is an error in the above document, name- 
ly, that the 'Erebus' and 'Terror' wintered at 
Beechey Island in 1846-7, — the correct dates 
should have been 1845-6 ; a glance at the date at 
the top and bottom of the record proves this, but 
in all other respects the tale is told in as few 
words as possible of their wonderful success up to 
that date. May, 1847. 

"We find that, after the last intelligence of Sir 



May, 1859. GORE'S RECORD. 257 

John Franklin was received by us (bearing date 
of July, 1845), from the whalers in Melville 
Bay, that his Expedition passed on to Lancas- 
ter Sound, and entered Wellington Channel, of 
which the southern entrance had been discovered 
by Sir Edward Parry in 1819. The 'Erebus' and 
^ Terror ' sailed up that strait for one hundred 
and fifty miles, and reached in the autumn of 
1845 the same latitude as was attained eight 
years subsequently by H.M.S. ^Assistance' and 
* Pioneer.' Whether Franklin intended to pur- 
sue this northern course, and was only stopped by 
ice in that latitude of 77° north, or purposely re- 
linquished a route which seemed to lead away 
from the known seas off the coast of America, 
must be a matter of opinion ; but this the docu- 
ment assures us of, that Sir John Franklin's Ex- 
pedition, having accomplished this examination, 
returned southward from latitude 77° north, which 
is at the head of Wellington Channel, and re-en- 
tered Barrow's Strait by a new channel between 
Bathurst and Cornwallis Islands. 

Seldom has such an amount of success been 
accorded to an Arctic navigator in a single 
season, and when ~ the ' Erebus ' and ^ Terror ' 
were secured at Beechey Island for the coming 
winter of 1845-6, the results of their first year's 
labor must have been most cheering. These 
results were the exploration of Wellington and 
Queen's Channel, and the addition to our charts 
22* K 



2.38 DISCOVERY OF CKOZIEli'S RECORD. Cni.v. XV. 

of the extensive lands on either hand. In 1846 
they proceeded to the south-we.st, and eventually 
reached Avithin twelve miles of the north ex- 
treme of King William's Land, when their prog- 
ress was arrested by the approaching winter of 
184G-7. That winter appears to have passed 
without any serious loss of life ; and when in the 
spring Lieutenant Gore leaves with a party for 
some especial purpose, and ver};- probably to con- 
nect the unknown coast-line of Kincr William's 
Land between Point Victory and Cape Her.'>chel, 
those on board the ' Erebus ' and ' Terror ' were 
" all well/' and the gallant Franklin still com- 
manded. 

But, alas ! round the margin of the paper upon 
which Lieutenant Gore in 1847 wrote tho.'^e words 
of hope and promise, another hand had subse- 
quently written the following words: — 

" April 25, 1848. — II. M. sliips ' Terror' and ' Erebus' ■were de- 
serted on ihc 22nd April, 5 leaoues N.N.W. of tlii.s, having been 
beset since 12th September, 184C. The officers and crews, consisting 
of 105 souls, under the command of Captain F. K. M. Crozicr, landed 
herein lat. G9° 37' 42" N., long. 98° 41' W. Sir John Franklin 
died on the 11th June, 1847; and the total loss by deaths in the ex- 
pedition has been to this date oiRcers and 15 men. 
(Signed) (Signed) 

" F. R. M. Croziek, " James Fitzjames, 

" Captain and Senior Officer. " Captain II. ^I. S. Erebus. 

" and start (on) to-morrow, 2Gth, for 
Back's Fish Kiver." 

This marginal infonnation was evidently writ- 



Mat, 1859. ACCOUNT OF THE EXPEDITION. . 959 

ten by Captain Fitzjames, excepting only the note 
stating when and where they were going, which 
was added by Caj)tain Crozier. 

There is some additional marginal information 
relative to the transfer of the document to its 
present position (viz., the site of Sir James Eoss's 
pillar) from a spot four miles to the northward, 
near Point Victory, where it had been originally 
deposited by the late Commander Gore. This 
little word late shows us that he too, within the 
twelvemonth had passed away. 

In the short space of tvv^elve months how 
mournful had become the history of Franklin's 
expedition; how changed from the cheerful 
" All well " of Graham Gore ! The spring of 
1847 found them within 90 miles of the known 
sea off the coast of America; and to men who 
had already in two seasons sailed over 500 miles 
of previously unexplored waters, how confident 
must they have felt that that forthcoming navi- 
gable season of 1847 would see their ships pass 
over so short an intervening space ! It was ruled 
otherwise. Within a month after Lieutenant 
Gore placed the record on Point Victory, the 
much-loved leader of the expedition, Sir John 
Franklin, was dead ; and the following spring 
found Captain Crozier, upon whom the command 
had devolved at King William's Land, endeavor- 
ing to save his starving men, 105 souls in all, 



2G0 DISCREPAN'CYIN THE RECOKD. Chap. XV. 

from a terrible death by retreating to the Hudson 
Bay territories up the Back or Great Fish River. 

A sad tale was nevev told in fewer words. 
There is something deeply touching in their ex- 
treme simplicity, and they show in the strongest 
manner that both the leaders of this retreating 
party were actuated by the loftiest sense of duty, 
and met with calmness and decision the fear- 
ful alternative of a last bold struggle for life, 
rather than perish without effort on board their 
ships ; for we well know that the ' Erebus ' and 
'■ Terror ' were only provisioned up to Jul\% 1848. 

Another discrepancy exists in the second part 
of the record written by Fitzjames. The original 
number composing the expedition was 138 souLv' 
and the record states the total loss by deaths to 
have been 9 officers and 15 men, consequently 
that 114 officers and men remained ; but it also 
states that 105 only landed under Captain Cro- 
zier's command, so that 9 individuals are unac- 
counted for. 

Lieutenant Hobson's note told me that he 
found quantities of clothing and articles of all 
kinds lying about the cairn, as if these men, 
aware that they were retreating for their lives, 
had there abandoned everything which they con- 
sidered superfluous. 

Hobson had experienced extremely bad weather 

* Sec Conclusion, p. 317. 



May, 1859. CAPE CROZIER. 261 

— constant gales and fogs — and tliought he 
miglit have passed the wreck without seemg 
herj he hoped to be more successful upon his 
return journey. 

Encouraged by this important news, we ex- 
erted our utmost vigilance in order that no trace 
should escape us. 

Our provisions were running very short, there- 
fore the three remaining puppies were of necessity 
shot, and their sledge used for fuel. We were also 
enabled to lengthen our journeys, as we had very 
smooth ice to travel over, the off-lying islets keep- 
ing the rough pack from pressing in upon the 
shore. 

Upon the 29th of May we reached the western 
extreme of King William's Island, in lat. 69° 08' 
N., and long. 100° 08' W. I named it after Cap- 
tain Crozier of the ' Terror,' the gallant leader of 
that " Forlorn Hope " of which we now just ob- 
tained tidings. The coast we marched along was 
extremely low — a mere series of ridges of lime- 
stone shingle, almost destitute of fossils. The 
only tracks of animals seen were those of a bear 
and a few foxes — the only living creatures a few 
willow grouse. Traces even of the w^andering 
Esquimaux became much less frequent after leav- 
ing Cape Herschel. Here were found only a few 
circles of stones, the sites of tenting-places, but so 
moss-grown as to be of great age. The prospect 
to seaward was not less forbidding — a rugged 



262 DESERTED BOAT. Ciixr. XV. 

surface of crushed-iip pack, including much heavy 
ice. In these shallow ice-covered sea?;, seals are 
but seldom found : and it is highly probable that 
all animal life in them is as scarce as upon the 
land. 

From Cape Crozier the coast-line was found to 
turn sharpl}^ away to the eastward ; and early in 
the morning of the 3 0th May we encamped along- 
side a large boat — another melancholy relic which 
Hobson had found and examined a few days be- 
fore, as his note left here informed me ; but he 
had failed to discover record, journal, pocketbook, 
or memorandum of any description. 

A vast quantity of tattered clothing was lying 
in her, and this we first examined. Not a single 
article bore the name of its former owner. The 
boat was cleared out and carefully swept that 
nothing might escape us. The snow was then 
removed from about her, but nothing whatever 
was found. 

This boat measured 28 feet long, and 7 feet 
3 inches wide ; she was JDuilt with a view to light- 
ness and light draught of water, and evidently 
equipped with the utmost care for the ascent of 
the Great Fish River; she had neither oars nor 
rudder, paddles supplying their place, and as a 
large remnant of light canvas, commonly known 
as No. 8, was found, and also a small block for 
reeving a sheet through, I suppose she had been 
provided with a sail. A sloping canvas roof or 



May, 1859. ARTICLES FOUND NEAR HER. 2G3 

rain-awning had also formed part of her equip- 
ment. She was fitted with a weather-cloth 9 
inches high, battened down all round the gunwale, 
and supported by 24 iron stanchions, so placed 
as to serve likewise for rowing thowells. There 
were 50 fathoms of deep-sea sounding-line near 
her, as well as an ice grapnel. She appeared to 
have been originally " carvel " built ; but for the 
purpose of reducing weight, very thin fir planks 
had been substituted for her seven upper strakes, 
and put on " clincher " fashion. 

The weight of the boat alone was about 700 or 
800 lbs. only, but she was mounted upon a sledge 
of unusual weight and strength. It was con- 
structed of two oak planks 23 feet 4 inches in 
length, 8 inches in width, and with an average 
thickness of 21 inches. These planks formed the 
sides or runners of the sledge ; they were con- 
nected by five cross-bars of oak, each 4 feet long, 
and 4 inches by 83 inches thick, and bolted down 
to the runners ; the underneath parts of the latter 
were shod with iron. Upon the cross-bars five 
saddles or supporting chocks for the boat were 
lashed, and the drag-ropes by which the crew 
moved this massive- sledge, and the weights upon 
it, consisted of 2| inch whaleline. 

I have calculated the weight of this sledge to 
be 650 lbs. ; it could not have been less, and may 
have been considerably more. The total v/eight 
of boat and sledge may be taken at 1400 lbs.. 



2G4 DESCRIPTION OF THE BOAT. Cii.vi-. XV. 

which amounts to a heavy load for seven strong 
health}^ men. 

The only markings about the boat were those 
upon her stem, by which Ave learned that she was 




built by contract, was received into "Woolwich 
Dockyard in April, 184 ,'•' and was numbered 61. 
There may have been a fourth figure to the right 
hand, as the stem had been reduced in order 
to lio-hten the boat. The around the sledoje 
rested upon was the usual limestone shingle, per- 
fectly flat, and probably overfloAved at times every 
summer, as the stones were embedded in ice. 

The boat was partially out of her cradle upon 
the sledge, and lying in such a position as to lead 
me to suppose it the effect of a violent north- 
west gale. She was barely, if at all, above the 
reach of occasional tides. 

One hundred yards from her, upon the land 
side, lay the stump of a fir-tree 12 feet long, and 

* Only the first three figures of the date upon Iier stem remained, 
thus — 184 . 



Mat, 1859. SKELETONS AND RELICS. 265 

16 inches in diameter at 3 feet above the roots. 
Although the ice had used it roughly during its 
drift to this shore, and rubbed off every vestige 
of bark, yet the wood was perfectly sound. It 
may have been and probably has been lying there 
for twenty or thirty years, and during such a pe- 
riod would suffer less decay in this region of frost 
than in one-sixth of the time at home. Within 
two yards of it I noticed a few scanty tufts of 
grass. 

But all these were after observations; there 
was that in the boat which transfixed us with 
awe. It was portions of two human skeletons. 
One was that of a slight young person ; the other 
of a large, strongly-made, middle-aged man. The 
former was found in the bow of the boat, but in 
too much disturbed a state to enable Hobson to 
judge whether the sufferer had died there ; large 
and powerful animals, probably wolves, had de- 
stroyed much of this skeleton, which may have 
been that of an officer. Near it we found the 

fragment of a pair of worked slippers, 

^^ of which I give the pattern, as they 

^^^^ may possibly be identified. The lines 

were white, with a black margin ; the 
spaces white, red, and yellow. They had origin- 
ally been 11 inches long, lined with calf-skin with 
the hair left on, and the edges bound with red silk 
ribbon. Besides these slippers there were a pair 
of small strong shooting half-boots. The other 

23 



266 RELICS ABOUT THE BOAT. Chap. XV. 

skeleton was in a somewhat more perfect state,* 
and was enveloped with clothes and furs ; it lay 
across the l)oat, under the after-thwart. Close 
beside it were found five watches; and there 
were two double-barrelled guns — one barrel in 
each loaded and cocked — standing muzzle up- 
wards against the boat's side. It may be imagined 
with what deep interest these sad relics were 
scrutinised, and how anxiously every fragment of 
clothing was turned over in search of pockets 
and pocketbooks, journals, or even names. Five 
or six small books were found, all of them scrip- 
tural or devotional works, except the ' Yicar of 
Wakefield.' One little book, ' Christian Melodies,' 
bore an inscription upon the titlepage from the 
donor to G. G. (Graham Gore ?) A small Bible 
contained numerous marginal notes, and whole 
passages underlined. Besides these books, the 
covers of a New Testament and Prayerbook were 
found. 

Amongst an amazing quantity of clothing there 
were seven or eight pairs of boots of various 
kinds — cloth winter boots, sea boots, heavy ankle 
boots, and strong shoes. I noted that there were 
silk handkerchiefs — black, white, and figured — 
towels, soap, sponge, tooth-brush, and hair-combs ; 
mackintosh gun-cover, morked outside with paint 
A 12, and lined with black cloth. Besides these 

*No part of tlie skull of cither skeleton was found, witli tlio exception 
only of the lower jaw of each. 



Mat, 1859. RELICS ABOUT THE BOAT. 267 

articles we found twine, nails, saws, files, bristles, 
wax-ends, sailro.akers' palms, powder, bullets, shot, 
cartridges, wads, leather cartridge-case, knives — 
clasp and dinner ones — needle and thread cases, 
slow-match, several bayonet-scabbards cut down 
into knife-sheaths, two rolls of sheet-lead, and, in 
short, a quantity of articles of one description 
and another truly astonishing in variety, and such 
as, for the most part, modern sledge-travellers in 
these rea;ions would consider a mere accumulation 
of dead weight, but slightly useful, and very likely 
to break down the strength of the sledge-crews. 

The only provisions we could find were tea and 
chocolate; of the former very little remained, but 
there were nearly 40 pounds of the latter. These 
articles alone could never support life in such a 
climate, and we found neither biscuit nor meat of 
any kind. A portion of tobacco and an empty 
pemmican-tin, capable of containing 22 pounds 
weight, were discovered. The tin was marked 
Vv^ith an E -, it had probably belonged to the ' Ere- 
bus.' None of the fuel originally brought from 
the ships remained in or about the boat, but there 
was no lack of it, for a drift-tree was lying on the 
beach close at hand, and had the party been in 
need of fuel they would have used the paddles 
and bottom-boards of the boat. 

In the after part of the boat we discovered 
eleven large spoons, eleven forks, and four tea- 
spoons, all of silver; of these twenty-six pieces 



268 RELICS ABOUT THE BOAT. Ciiah. XV. 

of plate, eight bore Sir John Franklin's crest, the 
remainder had the crests or initials of nine difler- 
ent olTicers, with the exception of a single fork 
which was not marked; of these nine oflficers, 
five belonged to the ' Erebus/ — Gore, Le Yes- 
conte, Fairholme, Couch, and Goodsir. Three 
others belonged to the ' Terror,' — Crozier, (a 
teaspoon only), Hornby, and Thomas, I do not 
know to whom the three articles with an owl en- 
graved on them belonged, nor who was the owner 
of the unmarked fork, but of the owners of those 
we can identif)^, the majority belonged to the 
^ Erebus.' One of the watches bore the crest of 
Mr. Couch, of the ' Erebus,' and as the pemmican 
tin also came from that ship, I am inclined to 
think the boat did also ; the authorities at Wool- 
wich could tell (by her number) to which ship 
she was supplied ; and as one of the pocket chro- 
nometers found in the boat was marked, " Park- 
inson and Frodsham 980," and the other *•' Arnold 
2020," it could also be ascertained to which ship 
they had been issued."-^ 

Sir John Franklin's plate perhaps was issued to 
the men for their use, as the only means of saving 
it; and it seems probable that the officers gen- 
erally did the same, as not a single iron spoon, 
such as sailors always use, has been found. Of 

* These chronometers, according to the receipts in office, were suj)- 
plicd one to each ship in 1845 ; hut it is impossible to tell to which ship 
the hoat belonged, as tlic namber is imperfect. 



May, 1859. CONJECTURES. 269 

the many men, probably twenty or thirty, who 
were attached to this boat, it seemed most strange 
that the remains of only two individuals were 
found, nor were there any graves upon the neigh- 
boring flat land; indeed, bearing in mind the 
season at which these poor fellows left their 
ships, it should be remembered that the soil was 
then frozen hard, and the labor of cutting a grave 
very great indeed. 

I was astonished to find that the sledge was 
directed to the N.E., exactly for the next point 
of land for which we ourselves were travelling ! 

The position of this abandoned boat is about 
50 miles — as a sledge would travel — from Point 
Victory, and therefore 65 miles from the position 
of the ships ; also it is 70 miles from the skeleton 
of the steward, and 150 miles from Montreal Isl- 
and ; it is moreover in the depth of a wide bay, 
where, b}^ crossing over 10 or 12 miles of very 
low land, a great saving of distance would be 
effected, the route by the coast-line being about 
40 miles. 

A little reflection led me to satisfy my own 
mind at least, that the boat was returning to the 
ships : and in no other way can I account for two 
men having been left in her, than by supposing 
the party were unable to drag the boat fur- 
ther, and that these two men, not being able to 
keep pace with their shipmates, were therefore 
left by them supplied with such provisions as 
23* 



270 CONJECTURES. Ciui-. XV. 

could be spared to last until the return of the 
others from the ship Avith a fresh stock. 

Whether it was the intention of the retroced- 
ing party to await the result of another season 
in the ships, or to follow the track of the main 
body to the Great Fish River, is now a matter of 
conjecture. It seems highly probable that they 
had purposed revisiting the boat, not only on ac- 
count of the two men left in charge of it, but 
also to obtain the chocolate, the live watches, 
and many other articles wliich would otherwise 
scarce!}' have been left in her. 

The same reasons which may be assigned for 
the return of this detachment from the main 
body, will also serve to account for their not hav- 
ing come back to their boat. In both instances 
'they appear to have greatly overrated their 
strength, and the distance they could travel in a 
given time. 

Taking this view of the case, we can under- 
' stand why their provisions would not last them 
for anything like the distance thc}^ required to 
travel ; and why they would be obliged to send 
back to the ships for more, first taking from the 
detached party all provisions they could possibly 
spare. Whether all or any of the remainder of 
this detached party ever reached their ships is 
uncertain ; all we know is, that they did not re- 
visit the boat, and which accounts for the absence 
of more skeletons in its neighborhood ; and the 



Mat, 1859. - POINT FRANKLm. 271 

Esquimaux report that tliere was no one alive in 
the ship when she drifted on shore, and that but 
one human body was found by them on board of 
her. 

After leaving the boat we followed an irregular 
coast-line to the N. and N.W., up to a very prom- 
inent cape, which is probably the extreme of land 
seen from Point Victory by Sir James Ross, and 
named by him Point Franklin, which name, as a 
cape, it still retains. 

I need hardly say that throughout the whole 
of my journey along the shores of King Wilham's 
Land I caused a most vigilant look-out to be kept 
to seaward for any appearance of the stranded 
ship spoken of by the natives; our search was 
however fruitless in that respect. 



272 POmT VICTORY, " Chat. XVI. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Errors in Franklin's records — Relics found at the cairn — Reflections on 
the retreat — Returning homeward — Geological remarks — Difiicul- 
lics of summer sledging — Arrive on board the 'Fox' — Navigaljlo 
N.W. passage — Death from scurvy — Anxiety for Captain Young — 
Young returns safely. 

On the mornino: of 2ncl June we reached Point 
Victory. Here Hobson's note left for me in the 
cairn informed me that he had not found the 
shghtest trace either of a wreck anywhere upon 
the coast, or of natives to the north of Cape Cro- 
zier. 

Although somewhat short of provisions, I de- 
termined to remain a day here in order to exam- 
ine an opening at the Bottom of Back Ba}', called 
so after Sir George Back, b}^ his friend Sir James 
Ross, and which had not been explored. This 
proved to be an inlet nearly 13 miles deep, with 
an average width of 1^ or 2 miles ; I drove round 
it upon the dog sledge, but found no trace of hu- 
man beings ; it was filled Avith heavy old ice, and 
was therefore unfavorable for the resort of seals, 
and consequently of natives also. 

The direction of the inlet is to the E.S.E. ; we 
found the land on either side rose as we advanced 
up it, and attained a considerable elevation, ex- 



June, 1859. EEEORS IN ERANKLIN'S EECOEDS. 273 

cept immediately across its head, where alone it 
was very low ; I have conferred upon it the name 
of Collinson, after one who will ever be distin- 
guished in connection with the Franklin search, 
and w^ho kindly relieved Lady Franklin of much 
trouble by taking upon himself the financial busi- 
ness of this expedition. 

An extensive bay, westward of Cape Herschel, 
I have named after Captain Washington, the hy- 
drographer, a steadfast supporter of this final 
search. 

All the intermediate coast-line along which the 
retreating crews performed their fearful march is 
sacred to their names alone. 

Hobson's note informed me of his having found 
a second record, deposited also by Lieut. Gore in 
May, 1847, upon the south side of Back Bay, but 
it afforded no additional information. 

It is strange that both these papers state the 
ships to have wintered in 1846-7 at Beechey 
Island ! So obvious a mistake would hardly have 
been made had any importance been attached to 
these documents. They were soldered up in thin 
tin cylinders, having been filled up on board prior 
to the departure of the travellers; consequently 
the day upon which they were deposited was not 
filled in ; but already the papers were much dam- 
aged by rust, — a very few more years would 
have rendered them wholly illegible. When the 
record left at Point Victory was opened to add 



274 RELICS AT THE CAIRN. Chap. XVI. 

thereto the supplemental information which gives 
it its chief value, Captain Fitzjames, as may be 
concluded by the color of the ink, fdled in the 
date — 28th — in May, "when the record -was origi- 
nally deposited. Tlie cylinder containing this 
record had not been soldered up again ; I suppose 
they had not the means of doing so ; it was found 
on the ground amongst a few loose stones which 
had evidently fallen along with it from the top of 
the cairn. Ilobson removed every stone of this 
cairn down to the ground and rebuilt it. 

Brief as these records are, we must needs be 
contented vfith them ; they are perfect models 
of official brevity. No log-book could be more 
provokingl}^ laconic. Yet, that an?/ record at all 
should be deposited after the abandonment of the 
ships, does not seem to have been intended ; and 
we should feel the more thankful to Captains Cro- 
zier and Fitzjames, to Avhom we are indebted for 
the invaluable supplement ; and our gratitude 
ought to be all the greater when we remember 
that the ink had to be thawed, and that writing 
in a tent during an April day in the Arctic re- 
gions is by no means an easy task. 

Besides plachig a copy of the record taken 
away by Hobson from the cairn, we both put rec- 
ords of our own in it ; and I also buried one 
under a large stone ten feet true north from it, 
stating the explorations and discoveries we had 
made. 



June, 1859. EELICS AT THE CAIRN. 275 

A great quantity and variety of things lay 
strewed about the cairn, such as even in their 
three days' march from the ships the retreat- 
ing crews found it impossible to carry further. 
Amongst these were four heavy sets of boat's 
cooking stoves, pickaxes, shovels, iron hoops, old 
canvas, a large single block, about four feet of 
a copper lightnmg conductor, long pieces of hol- 
low brass curtain rods, a small case of selected 
medicines containing about twenty-four phials, 
the contents in a wonderful state of preservation ; 
a deep circle by Robinson, with two needles, bar 
magnets, and light horizontal needle all complete, 
the whole weighing only nine pounds ; and even 
a small sextant engraved with the name of 
" Frederick Hornby " lying beside the cairn with- 
out its case. The colored eye-shades of the sex- 
tant had been taken out, otherwise it was perfect ; 
the movable screws and such parts as come in 
contact with the observer's hand were neatly cov- 
ered with thin leather to prevent frost-bite in 
severe weather. 

The clothing left by the retreating crcAVS of the 
^ Erebus ' and ' Terror ' formed a huge heap four 
feet high; every article was searched, but the 
pockets were empty, and not one of all these ai ti- 
des were marked, — indeed sailors' warm clothing 
seldom is. Two canteens, the property of marines, 
were found, one marked "88 C°. Wm. Hedges," 
and the other « 89 C°. Wm. Hether." A small 



276 EELICS AT THE CAIUN. Chap. XVI. 

panniken made out of a two-pound pre^erved-mcat 
tin had scratched on it " W. Mark." 

When continuing my homeward march, and, as 
nearl}- as I could judge, 22 or 2f miles to the north 
of Point Victory, I saw a few stones placed in line, 
as if across the head of a tenting place to afford 
some shelter ; here it was I think that Lieutenant 
Gore deposited the record in May, 1847, which 
was found in 1848 by Lieutenant Irving, and 
finally deposited at Point Victory. Some scraps 
of tin vessels were Ij^ing about, but whether they 
had been left by Sir James Ross' party in May, 
1830, or hy the Franklin Expedition in 1847 or 
1848, is uncertain.'-'- 

Here ended m}^ own search for traces of the 
lost ones. Hobson found two other cairns, and 
many relics, between this position and Cape Felix. 
From each place where any trace was discovered 
the most interesting of the relics were taken away, 
so that the collection we have made is very con- 
siderable. 

Of these northern cairns I will write a descrip- 
tion when I have received Hobson's account of 
his journey; but here it is as well to state his 
opinion, as well as my own, that no part of the 
coast between Cape Felix and Cape Crozier has 
been visited by Esquimaux since the fatal march 

* It is a remaikablo circumstance that wlien, in 1830, Sir James Ross 
discovered Point Victory, he named two points of land, then in sight. 
Cape Franklin and Cape Jane Franklin respectively. Eighteen years 
afterwards Franklin's ships perished within sight of tliose headlands. 



June, 1859. REFLECTIONS AT THE RETEEAT. 277 

of the lost crews in April, 1848 ; none of the cairns 
or numerous articles strewed about — which would 
be invaluable to the natives — or even the drift- 
wood we noticed, had been touched by them. 
From this very significant fact it seems quite cer- 
tain that they had not been discovered by the 
Esquimaux, whose knowledge of the " white men 
falling down and dying as they walked along" 
must be limited to the shore-line southward and 
eastward of Cape Crozier, and where, of course, 
no traces were permitted to remain for us to find. 
It is not j)robable that such fearful mortality would 
have overtaken them so early in their march as 
within 80 miles by sledge-route from the aban- 
doned ships — such being their distance from Cape 
Crozier ; nor is it probable that we could have 
passed the wreck had she existed there, as there 
are no ofi-lying islands to prevent a ship drifting 
in upon the beach ; whilst to the southward they 
are very numerous ; so much so that a drifting 
ship could hardly run the gauntlet between them 
so as to reach the shore. 

The coast from Point Victory northward is con- 
siderably higher than that upon which we have 
been so many days ; the sea also is not so shallow, 
and the ice comes close in ; to seaward all was 
heavy close pack, consisting of all descriptions of 
ice, but for the most part old and heavy. 

From Walls' Bay I crossed overland to the 
eastern shore, and reached my depot near the 
24 



278 RETURNING HOMEWARD. Chap. XVI. 

entrance of Port Parry on the 5th June, after an 
absence of thirtj^-four days. Hence I purposed 
travelling alongshore to Cape Sabine, in order to 
avoid the rough ice which we encountered when 
crossing direct from Cape Victoria in April, and 
also hoping to obtain a few more observations for 
the magnetic inclination. 

The weather became foggy as we approached 
Prince George's Bay, therefore we were obliged 
to go well into it before attempting to cross. 
We gained the laud — upon the opposite side, as 
I supposed — and which would lead us direct to 
Cape Sabine ; but when the weather cleared up 
we saw a long low island to seaward of us, which 
puzzled me much. Eventually I found we had 
discovered a strait leadiufj; from Prince Georsre's 
Bay into Wellington Strait, about 8 miles south 
of Cape Sabine. 

This discovery cost us a day's delay, and was 
therefore unwelcome, as we were then in daily 
expectation and dread of the thaw, which renders 
all travelling so very difficult ; and we were still 
230 long miles from our ship. In this strait we 
found a deserted snow village of seventeen huts ; 
one of them was unusually large, its internal 
diameter being 14 feet. The men soon scraped 
together enough blubber to suppl}^ us with fuel 
for our homeward march. Strewed about on the 
ice or in every snow hut were shavings and chips 
of fresh wood ; in one of them I found a child's 




Isolated Iceberf;. 



June, 1859. GEOLOGICAL EEMAEKS. 279 

toy — a miniature sledge — made of wood. No 
traces of natives were found upon either shore at 
this place, nor had I met with any since leaving 
the western coast of the island to the southward 
of Cape Crozier. 

Having passed through nearly to the eastern 
end of the strait, we cut off some distance by 
crossing overland, so as to reach the sea-coast 3 or 
4 miles southward of Cape Sabine. A few willow 
grouse, two foxes, and a young reindeer were seen. 
There was some vegetation upon the land, and 
animals appeared to resort to this locality in tol- 
erable abundance ; the contrast between it and 
the low, barren shore we had so recently come 
from was striking indeed ! 

Nothing can exceed the gloom and desolation 
of the western coast of King William's Island : 
Hobson and myself had some considerable expe- 
rience of it ; his sojourn there exceeded a month ; 
its climate seems different from that of the eastern 
coast; it is more exposed to north-west winds, and 
the air was almost constantly loaded with chilling 
fogs. Everywhere upon the shores of the island 
I noticed boulders of dark gneiss ; upon the west 
coast they were generally small, and of a dark 
gray color. About the north part of the island 
Hobson found a good deal of sandstone, the prob- 
able result of ice-drift from Melville Island or 
Banks Land. 

This land gives one the idea of its having risen 



280 BOOTUIA FELIX. Chap. XVI. 

•within a recent geological period from the sea — • 
not suddenly, but at regular intervals; the numer- 
ous terraces or beach-marks form long horizontal 
lines, rising very gradually, and in due proportion 
as their distance increases from the sea ; near the 
shore they are, of course, most distinct. Upon 
the west coast some fossils were picked up, chiefly 
impressions of shells. 

King William's Island is for the most part ex- 
tremely barren, and its surface dotted over with 
innumerable ponds and lakes. It is not by any 
means the " land abounding with reindeer and 
musk oxen " which we expected to find : the na- 
tives told us there were none of the latter and 
very few of the former upon it. 

On the 8th June the first ducks and brent 
geese were seen flying northward. Passing over 
the extreme point of Cape Victoria, Boothia Land, 
near which we saw the deserted snow huts of our 
March acquaintances, and shortly afterwards cross- 
ing the mouth of the deep bay to the north of it, 
in wdiich, sheltered by the island, a ship would 
find security from ice pressure, and very tolerable 
winter quarters, we again reached the straight 
low limestone coast of Boothia Felix. 

I was unable to make any delay at the Mag- 
netic Pole, nor could I find a trace of Ross' 
cairn ;=•= but at each of our encampments along 

• Tliis cairn, as well as the one built on Point Victory in 1S30, was 
removed by the natives ; fortunately they had not visited Point Victory 



June, 1859. THE MAGNETIC INCLINATION. 281 

the coast the magnetic inclination was carefully 
observed. Throughout my whole journey I availed 
myself of every opportunity of obtaining these 
most interesting observations, often remaining up, 
after we had encamped for rest, six or seven hours 
in order to do so ; but the instruments supplied 
for this purpose were not well adapted, and occa- 
sioned me a vast deal of labor and loss of time, so 
as to diminish to almost one-third the results I 
should otherwise have obtained. Much snow has 
disappeared off the land ; and the ridges or ancient 
beaches, being the parts most free from snow, 
showed out strongly in long, dark, horizontal 
lines, rising above each other until lost to view 
in the interior. Here and there a few fossil shells 
and corals were picked up, and four or five willow 
grouse shot. 

loth June. — We passed from limestone to gran- 
ite in lat. 71°10' N. Here the land attains to con- 
siderable elevation. In the hollows of the dai'k 
granite rocks we found abundance of water, and 
also in a few places upon the sea-ice ; it was quite 
evident that in another day or two the snow 
would altogether yield to the warmth of summer ; 
birds were now frequently seen. 

We discovered a narrow channel to the east- 
ward of the one between the Tasmania Group, 
through which we had passed with so much dif- 

whilst the Franklin cairn and record remained there, otherwise neither 
cairn nor record would have remained for us to discover. 

24* 



282 ILLNESS OF HOBSON. Chap. XVI. 

ficulty in April ; our new channel was covered 
with smooth ice, and was also much shorter. 

At one of our depots lately visited, a note left 
by Hobson informed me of his being six days in 
advance of me, and also of his own serious illness ; 
for many days past he had been unable to walk, 
and was consequently conveyed upon the sledge ; 
his men were hastening home with all their 
strength and speed, in order to get him under the 
Doctor's care. We also were doino; our best to 
push on, lest the bursting out of melting snow 
from the various ravines should render the ice 
impassable. 

On the 15th the snow upon the ice everjrwhere 
yielded to the effects of increased temperature ; I 
was, indeed, most thankful at its having remained 
firm so long. To make any progress at all after 
this date was of course a very great labor, requir- 
ing the utmost efforts of both the men and the 
dogs i nor was the freezing mixture through which 
we trudged by any means agreeable ; we were 
often more than knee-deep in it. 

We succeeded in reachins; False Strait on the 
morning of the 18th June, and pitched our tent 
just as heavy rain began to descend ; it lasted 
throughout the greater part of the day. After 
travelling a few miles upon the Long Lake, fur- 
ther progress was found to be quite impossible, 
and we were obliged to haul our sledges up off 
the flooded ice, and commence a march of 16 or 



.Ji:nb/1859. NAVIGABLE N.W. PASSAGE. 283 

17 miles overland for the ship. The poor dogs 
were so tired and sore-footed, that we could not 
induce them to follow us j they remained about 
the sledges. After a very fatiguing scramble 
across the hills and through the snow valleys we 
were refreshed with a sight of our poor dear 
lonely little ^ Fox/ and arrived on board in time 
for a late breakfast on the 19th June. 

With respect to a navigable North-West Passage, 
and to the probability of our having been able 
last season to make any considerable advance to 
the southward, had the barrier of ice across the 
western outlet of Bellot Strait permitted us to, 
reach the open water beyond, I think, judging 
from what I have since seen of the ice in the 
Franklin Strait, that the chances were greatly in 
fiivor of our reaching Cape Herschel, on the S. 
side of King William's Land, by passing (as I in- 
tended to do) eastward of that island. 

From Bellot Strait to Cape Victoria we found 
a mixture of old and new ice, showing the exact 
proportion of pack and of clear water at the 
setting in of winter. Once to the southward 
of the Tasmania Group, I think our chief diffi- 
culty would have been overcome ; and south 
of Capt Victoria I doubt whether any further 
obstruction would have been experienced, as 
but little, if any, ice remained. The natives 
told us the ice went away, and left a clear 
sea every year. As our discoveries sliow the 



284 NAVIGABLE N.W. PASSAGE. CnAr. XVI. 

Victoria Strait to be but little more than 20 
miles wide, the ice pressed southward through 
so narrow a space could hardly have prevented 
our crossing to Victoria Land, and Cambridge 
Bay, the wintering place reached ]>y ColHnson, 
from the v.'cst. 

No one avIio sees that portion of ^'ictoria 
Strait which lies between Kino; William's Isl- 
land and Victoria Land, as wc saw it, could 
doubt of there being but one way of getting a 
ship through it, that way being the extremely 
hazardous one of drift through in the pack. 

The wide channel between Prince of AVales' 
Land and Victoria Land admits a vast and con- 
tinuous stream of very heavy ocean formed ice 
from the N.W., which presses upon the western 
face of King William's Island, and chokes up 
Victoria Strait in the manner I have just de- 
scribed. I do not think the North- West Passage 
could ever be sailed through by passing west- 
ward — that is, to windward — of King William's 
Island. 

If the season was so favorable for navio-ation 
^as to open the northern part of this western sea'^ 
(as, for instance, in 1846, when Sir J. Franklin 
sailed down it), I think but comparatively little 
difficulty would be experienced in the more 
southern portion of it until Victoria Strait was 

* This clinnncl is now named after the illustrious navigator, Admiral 
Sir John Franklin. 



JuNJE, 1859. NAVIGABLE N.W. PASSAGE. 285 

reached. Had Sir John Franklin known that 
a channel existed eastward of King William's 
Land (so named by Sir John Eoss), I do not 
think he would have risked the besetment of 
his ships in such very heavy ice to the west- 
ward of it; but had he attempted the north- 
west passage by the eastern route, he would 
probably have carried his ships safely through 
to Behring's Straits. But Franklin was fur- 
nished with charts which indicated no passage 
to the eastward of King William's Land, and 
made that land (since discovered by Rae to be 
an island) a peninsula attached to the continent 
of North America ; and he consequently had but 
one course open to him, and that the one he 
adopted. 

My own preference for the route by the east 
side of the island is founded upon the observa- 
tions and experience of Eae and Collinson in 
1851-2-4. I am of opinion that the barrier of 
ice ojBf Bellot Strait, some 3 or 4 miles wide, 
was the only obstacle to our carrying the '^ Fox,' 
according to my original intention, southward 
to the Great Fish River, passing east of King 
William's Island, and from thence to a winter- 
ing position on Victoria Land. Perhaps some 
future voyager, profiting by the experience so 
fearfully and fatally acquired by the Franldin 
expedition, and the observations of Eae, Collin- 
son, and myself, may succeed in carrying his 



28C DEATH FROM SCURVY. Chai-. XVI. 

ship through from sea to sea : at least he Tvill 
be enabled to direct all his efforts in the true 
and only direction. In the mean time to Frank- 
lin must be assigned the earliest discovery of the 
North-West Passage, though not the actual ac- 
complishment of it in his ships/=' 

Scdurdai/, 2ncl Juhj. — Upon my arrival on board 
on the morning of the lOtli June, my first inqui- 
ries were about Hobson ; I found him in a worse 
state than I expected. He reached the ship on 
the 14th, unable to walk, or even stand without 
assistance ; but already he was beginning to 
amend, and was in excellent spirits. Christian 
had shot several ducks, which, with preserved po- 
tato, milk, strong ale, and lemon-juice, completed 
a very respectable dietary for a scurvy-stricken 
patient. All the rest Avere tolerably well ; slight 
traces only of scurvy in two or three of the men. 
The ship w^as as clean and trim as I could expect, 
and all had well and cheerfully performed their 
duties during my absence ; liardlj' any game had 
been shot, except one bear. 

The Doctor now acquainted me with the death 
of Thomas Blackwell, ship's steward, which oc- 

* This will be understood wlscn it is recollected tliat W. of Siinpsun's 
Straits or Victoria Land, a navijjablc jiassagc to Bclnin;^'s Straits is known 
to exist along the coast of North America. Franklin himself, with his 
companion Richardson, surveyed by far the greater jtartion of that dis- 
tance. Franklin's and Parry's discoveries overlap each other in longi- 
tude, and for the last thirty years or more the discovery of the Nonli- 
Wcst Passage has been reduced to the discovery of a link uniting tlio 
two. 



July, 1859. ANXIETY FOR CAPTAIN YOUNG. 287 

curred only five days previously, and was occa- 
sioned by scurvy. This man had scurvy when I 
left the ship in April, and no means were left 
untried by the Doctor to promote the recovery 
and rally his desponding energies ; but his mind, 
unsustained by hope, lost all energy, and at last 
he had to be forcibly taken upon deck for fresh 
ai/ . For months past the ship's spirits had been 
of necessit}^ removed from under his control. 

When too late his shipmates made it known 
that he had a dislike to preserved meats, and had 
lived the whole winter upon salt pork ! He also 
disliked preserved potato, and would not eat it 
unless watched, nor would he put on clean clothes 
which others in charity prepared for him. Yet 
his death was somewhat unexpected ; he went on 
deck as usual to walk in the middle of the day, 
and, when found there, was quite dead. His re- 
mains were buried beside those of our late shin- 
mate Mr. Brand. 

The news of our success to the southward in 
tracing the footsteps of the lost expedition great- 
ly revived the spirits of my small crew; we 
wished only for the safe and speedy return of 
Young and his party. 

Captain Young commenced his spring explora- 
tions on the 7th April, with a sledge party of four 
men, and a second sledge drawn by six dogs 
under the management of our Greenlander, Sam- 
uel ; finding in his progress that a channel exist- 



288 ANXIETY FOR CAPTAIN YOUNG. Ciiai-. XVL 

ed between Prince of Wales' Land and Victoria 
Land whereby his discovery and search would be 
lengthened, he sent back one sledge, the tent, 
and four men to the ship, in order to economise 
provisions, and for forty days journeyed with 
one man (George Hobday) and the dogs, encamp- 
ing in such snow lodges as they were able to 
build. 

This great exposure and fatigue, together with 
extremely bad weather, and a most difficult coast- 
line to trace, greatly injured his health ; he was 
compelled to return to the ship on 7th June for 
medical aid, but proposing at all hazards to renew 
his explorations almost immediately. Dr. Walker 
met this determination by a strong protest in 
writing against his leaving the ship again, his 
health being quite unequal to it; but after three 
days Young felt himself somewhat better, and, 
with a zeal which knew no bounds, set off to com- 
plete his branch of the search, taking with him 
both his sledge parties. 

From the Doctor's account I felt most anxious 
for his return, lest his health, or that of his com- 
panions, should receive permanent injury ; in fact 
this was now my only cause of anxiety. The 
season was rather forward here, and advancing 
with imusual rapidity, rain and wind dissolving 
the snow and ice ; there was much water in Bellot 
Strait, extending from Half-way Island eastward 
to the table-land, and thence in a narrow lane to 



JPLT, 1859. TREATMENT OE DOGS. 289 

Long Island. After a day or two I could per- 
ceive a vast improvement in Hobson ; and my own 
four men, with the exception of Hampton, who re- 
quired rest, were in sound health ; so also was my 
companion Petersen. On 24th June Christian 
shot two small reindeer, which gave us 170 lbs. of 
meat; a few days before that he shot a seal, 
which afforded two sumptuous meals for all on 
board. 

The time having elapsed during which Young 
expected to remain absent, and the difficulties of 
the transit from the western sea having become 
greatly increased, I set off early on the 25th June 
with my four men, intending to visit Pemmican 
Rock ; but failing to come across him there, I re- 
solved to carry on provisions as far as Four Eiver 
Point, in the hope of meeting with him, and of fa- 
cilitating his return. To our surprise the water 
had all drained off the frozen surface of the Long 
Lake, and it therefore afforded excellent travel- 
ling. We found the poor dogs lying quietly be- 
side our sledges ; they had attacked the pemmican, 
and devoured a small quantity which was not 
secured in tin, also some blubber, some leather 
straps, and a gull that I had shot for a specimen ; 
but they had not apparently relished the biscuit. 
Poor dogs ! they have a hard Hfe of it in these re- 
gions. Even Petersen, who is generally kind and 
humane, seems to fancy they must have little or 
no feeling : one of his theories is, that you may 
25 1' 



290 TREATMENT OF DOGS. Cuw. XVI. 

knock an Esquimaux dog about the head with 
any article, however heavy, witli perfect impunily 
to the brutes. One of us upbraided him the 
other day because he broke his whip-handle over 
the head of a dog. '-lYicd ?uas nolldnf) at all" he as- 
sured us: some friend of his in Greenland found 
he could beat his dogs over the head with a heavy 
hammer, — it stunned them certainly, — but b}' 
laying them with their mouths open to the wind, 
they soon revived, got up and ran about "«// 

We lost no time in giving them a good feed, 
the first for seven days, yet they did not seem 
unusually hungrj', and soon coiled themselves up 
to sleep again. Whilst the men and dogs were 
employed next da}^ in conveying a sledge to the 
east end of the lake, I walked to Cape Bird to 
look out for the absent party, l^ut they had not 
yet returned to Pemmican Eock. 

When vainly endeavoring, with felonious in- 
tentions, to climb up a steep cliff to the breeding- 
places of some silvery gulls, I saw and shot a 
brent goose, seated upon an accessible ledge, and 
made a prize of four eggs ; it seems strange that 
this bird should have selected so unusual a breed- 
ing-place. Many seals were basking on the ice, 
and the watercourse by which our sledges as- 
cended a week before to the Long Lake was now 
a strong and rapid stream. A few reindeer were 
seen. 



July, 1859. YOUNG RETURNS SAFELY. 291 

On the 27th I sent three of the men back to 
the ship, and with Thompson and the dogs went 
on to Pemmican Rock, where, to our great joy, 
we happily met Young and his party, who had 
but just returned there, after a long and success- 
ful journey the particulars of which I will give 
hereafter. 

Young was greatly reduced m flesh and strength, 
so much Aveakened indeed that for the last few 
days he had travelled on the dog sledge ; Harvey 
— also far from well — could just manage to keep 
pace with the sledge; his malady was scurvy. 
Their journeys had been very depressing ; most 
dismal weather, low, dreary limestone shores de- 
void of game, and no traces of the lost expedition. 
The news of our success in the southern journeys 
greatly cheered them. On the following day we 
were all once more on board, a,nd indulging in 
such rapid consumption of eatables as only those 
can do who have been much reduced by long- 
continued fatigue and exposure to cold. Venison, 
ducks, beer and lemon-juice, daily; preserved 
apples and cranberries three times a week ; and 
pickled whaleskin — a famous antiscorbutic — ad 
libitum for all who liked it. The weather, which 
for the last week had been wet, windy, and miser- 
able, now set in fair. The carpenter's hammer, 
and the men's voices at their work, were new and 
animating sounds. 



202 SIGNS OF RELEASE. Chap. XVII. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Signs of release — Dearth of animal life — Owl is pood beef — Beat out 
of winter quarters — Our painc-list — TJoacli Fury Beacli — Escape from 
Regent's Inlet — In Baffin's Bay — Captain Alien youn<:'8 journey — 
Diseo ; sad di.sappoinimcnt — Bart from our Esquimaux friends — 
Adieu to Greenhuul — Arrive home. 

To-day {2nd Jul//) I took a long and delightful 
walk, but shot only two ducks; Petersen went 
in another dhection, and got nothhig ; Christian, 
after toiling all day in his kayak, returned with 
only two divers and a duck. Lately he has ob- 
tained for us several king and long-tailed ducks 
(no eider ducks have been seen), two red-throated 
divers, and two brent geese, and caught an er- 
mine in its summer coat. Yesterday one of tlie 
men brought on board a trout weighing 2 lbs. ; 
he saw a glaucous gull and a fox disputing for it ; 
the former seems to have killed and brouQ-ht it 
to land. 

The water now washes the south side of the 
Fox Islands, and extends to the south point of 
Long Island. The month of June has been some- 
what warmer than usual, its mean temperature 
being +351°. 

9ih. — The ship has been thoroughly cleaned and 



July, 1859. SIGNS OF RELEASE. 293 

restowedj remaining provisions examined, tanks 
filled with fresh water, 12 tons of stone ballast 
taken in, and everything brought on board that 
was landed last autumn. Hobson is the only one 
upon the sick list ; but he is able to walk about 
and does duty. Very few birds, and only one 
small seal, have been obtained during the week ; 
an occasional great northern diver is seen, and a 
rare land bird has been shot. We cannot dis- 
cover the nests of either ducks or geese, and the 
breeding cliffs of the gulls being inaccessible, we 
have not got any eggs. I am a close prisoner at 
the corner of my table, poring over my observa- 
tion and angle book, and have at length laid 
down upon paper the west coast of King Wil- 
liam's Land to my satisfaction. Tidal observa- 
tions are commenced ; and the aneroid and mer- 
curial barometers are again being compared in 
order to verify the former. 

16//^. Saturday/ night. — We are now almost ready 
for sea. There is a much larger space of water 
in Bellot Strait, reaching within 300 or 400 yards 
of us. Long cracks or lanes of water have been 
seen in Prince Eegent's Inlet. The decay of the 
ice continues, though not with equal rapidity, 
yet with very satisfactory despatch. Westerly 
winds and clear weather prevail. Christian has 
seen two reindeer this week, and has shot a very 
few birds, and seven seals. As these creatures 
lie basking upon the ice, he crawls up to them 
25* 



294 SHOOTING SEALS. Chap. XVIL 

behind a small calico screen, fitted npon a minia- 
ture sledo'c about a foot lono- on which there is a 
rest for the muzzle of his rifle, and a sht in the 
calico through which he fires it. The seals aflbrd 
an average weight of thirty pounds of excellent 
fresh meat, which we relish greatly, and consider 
much better suited to our present condition than 
such poor venison as reindeer would furnish at 
this season. A single hare has been shot ; the 
white fur has nearly all disappeared, and left ex- 
posed the summer coat of dull lead color. Sev- 
eral small birds not common to the northward 
are found here. Insects abound ; the Doctor is 
perpetually in chase, unless busily occupied in 
grubbing up plants. Young is survej-ing the 
harbor. Hobson fully occupied in preparing the 
ship for sea. I have been giving some attention 
to the engines and boiler, and hope, with the help 
of the two stokers, to be able to make use of our 
steam power. 

The men have received my hearty thanks for 
their great exertions during the travelling period. 
I told them I considered ever}^ part of our search 
to have been fully and efficiently performed. 
Our labors have determined the exact position of 
the extreme northern promontory of the conti- 
nent of America ; I have affixed to it the name 
of Murchison, after the distinguished President of 
the Royal Geographical Society — the strenuous 
advocate for this " further search " — and the able 




Walruses — A family partv 



July, 1859. DEARTH OF ANIMAL LIFE. 295 

cliampion of Lady Franklin when she needed all 
the support which private friendship and public 
spirit could bestow. 

23}xl — The ice in Prince Regent's Inlet is 
broken up into pack^ but the prevalence of east- 
erly winds keeps it in close upon the shore. The 
ice about us is very much decayed, holes through 
it in many places. No reindeer seen this week, 
and only two seals procured ; one of them shot by 
Christian, the other was killed hy a bear, which 
ran off before Samuel could come within shot of 
him. A fox, a gull, a couple of ducks, and one or 
two lemmings, complete our game list for the 
week, yet our two Esquimaux are indefatigable in 
the pursuit. We eat all the birds and seeJs we 
can shoot, as well as mustard and cress as fast as 
we can grow it, but the quantity is very small. 
We sometimes refresh ourselves with a salad of 
sorrel-leaves, or roots of the little plant with lilac 
flower of snapdragon shape, named Pedicidaris 
hirsida. 

The seine has been hauled in the narrow lake 
at the head of the harbor, but, as it was not vv^ell 
managed, only a dozen small trout were taken, 
though several were seen. We have tried for rock- 
cod, but without success. The relics of the lost 
expedition have been aired, exhibited to the crew, 
labelled, and packed away. The Doctor has been 
dredging lately. A record detailing our proceed- 



290 DEARTH OF ANIMAL LIFE. Chap. XVIL 

ings lias been placed in a cairn upon the west 
point of Depot Bay. 

16/ liuf/ust. — A long continuance of imu.sually 
calm, bright, and warm weather has been favor- 
able to our painting and cleaning the ship, scrap- 
ing masts, and so forth. The result is that she 
looks unusually smart and gay, and our impa- 
tience to exhibit her, and ourselves at home is 
much increased. With the exception of a few 
gulls, and a duck, our hunters have shot noth- 
ing lately, although constantly out, either darting 
about in their kayaks or ranging over the hills ; 
in fact there is nothing which they can shoot ; the 
ducks are tolerably numerous, but extremely 
wild ; the valleys are respectably clothed with 
vegetation, yet only one animal — a hare — has 
been seen. I was so fortunate as to shoot a 
snowy owl, the flesh of Avhicli was white and ten- 
der, but, to my palate, tasteless, although Peter- 
sen considers that " owl is the best beef in the 
country." 

On Thursday night we found the harbor-ice to 
be quietly drifting out, of course taking us with 
it. The night was calm, the current in Bellot 
Strait very strong ; we were almost helpless 
under the circumstances, and therefore felt the 
danger of our position. To warp the ship along 
the ice-edge, out of the way of the shore and 
rocks as it turned round and drifted alonfj; the 



Aug. 1859. OUT OF WINTEE QUARTERS. 297 

cliffs to the westward, gave us some hours' occu- 
pation. At length it stuck fast between Fox Isl- 
and and the main. 

At turn of tide on Friday, morning it began to 
drift eastward, and by this time being much 
broken up, and a breeze coming to our aid, we 
managed to extricate ourselves and reach a secure 
anchorage in Point Kenedy. 

On Saturday night some ice that was left came 
drifting out of the inner harbor, and obliged us to 
slip our cable ; but after a few hours we regained 
our berth in safety, and have since been un- 
disturbed. There is no immediate prospect of 
escape, but we expect a prodigious smashing up 
of the ice whenever a strong wind springs up to 
set it in motion. To-day the steam was got up, 
and with the help of our two stokers I worked 
the engines for a short time. It is very cheering 
to know that we still have steam power at our 
command, although, by the deaths of poor Mr. 
Brand and Robert Scott, we were deprived of our 
engineer and engine-driver. 

The mean temperature for July has been 40°'14, 
which is above the averas!:e for this regrion ; the 
July temperatures have usually varied from 36° 
to 42^ 

All are now in good health, but Hobson still a 
little lame. The issue of lemon-juice has been re- 
duced to the ordinary allowance of half an ounce 
daily (as we have but little that is really good), 



298 WAITING TO ESCAPE. Chap. XVII. 

lest another winter should become inevitable, 
■which, I can devoutly say, ma}^ God forbid ! 

Monday iiir/ht, Slh. — Very anxiously awaiting 
an opportunity to escape. AVe have constantly 
watched the ice from the neiixliborini!; hills, includ- 
ing the lofty summit of Mount Walker — named 
after the Doctor, who was the first to ascend it 
(1123 feet) — from which Fury Point can be dis- 
tinguished, but nothing very cheering has been 
seen. "We had a N.E. gale, accompanied by rain 
and a considerable fall of the barometer, a few 
days ago ; and as it blew freshly from the westward 
this morning, I went to a hill-top and saw that 
much ice had been broken np in Brentford Bay, 
and that there were streaks of water alon<? the 
land between Possession Point and Hazard Inlet ; 
this water, however, was not accessible to us. 

The ice about Pemmican Bock was much in 
the same position as we found it last year, but 
Bellot Strait was perfectly clear. All the ice in 
this harbor, in Depot Bay, and Hazard Inlet, is 
gone, by far the greater part having decayed, not 
drifted away. 

Later in the day and from loftier hill-tops, a 
good deal of water was seen off Cape Garry, and 
a water-sky bej'ond. It now blows very strong- 
ly from the S.W., the most desirable quarter; and 
as the anxious desire to escape has become op- 
pressive, it is not to be wondered at that now our 
hopes have become extravagant. We may even 



Aug. 1859. GAME LIST. 299 

make a start to-morrow ! On the other hand, a 
careful examination of our provision store shows 
that, should we be obliged to spend another win- 
ter here, we must curtail our allowance of meat 
— fresh and salt — to three-quarters of a pound, 
and have to use but very indifferent lemon-juice. 
The spirits, I rejoice to say, will very shortly be 
entirely expended. 

On the morning of the 3rd instant, when the 
rain ceased and N.E. gale sprang up, two claps of 
thunder were distinctly heard ; this occurs but 
very rarely in these latitudes. There is ample 
occupation for the men but not much for the 
officers ; as for myself, I write a great deal, and 
work occasionally at our chart of discoveries ; the 
only refreshment I indulge in is an occasional 
dive into packets of old letters. All yesterday 
the harbor was full of ice set in by southerly and 
westerly winds, and so closely packed that one 
might have walked over it to the shore ; to-day it 
has nearly all drifted out again. The subjoined 
list will show w^hat game we have been able to 
obtain by constant and arduous labor from the 
resources of these regions during nearly two 
years' sojourn. 

Game List. 



8 Months in the Pack, 1857-8. 1 1 11 Months in Port Kenedy, 1858-9. 


Bears. 
2 


Seals. Dovekies. Foxes. j Bears. 
73 38 12 


Deer. 
8 


Hares. Foxes. 
9 19 


Ptarmi- 
gan. 
82 


Wild 1 Seals. 
Fowl.l 
98 1 18 



At Port Kenedy several ermines and lemmings were also caught. 
The ptarmigan all disappeared after 1st April. 



300 CRESSWELL BAY. CnAP. XVn. 

Only 2 dovekics were seen, 1 in winter, ami 1 in sumnict plumage. 
A few seals were seen as early as tlic month of February. 
Ducks, geese, and gulls were tlio usual kind of wild fowl killed. 
During tlic 4 months occupied in sailing from Davis Strait to Bellot 
Strait, many looms and rotcliics, and 5 or 6 bears were shot. 

Wednesda?/, 10^/^. — The S.W. wind proved a 
good friend to us ; by the morning of the Uth it 
had moved the ice off shore, and cleared away a 
passage for us out of Brentford Bay. "We started 
under steam at eleven o'clock yesterday morning, 
and, passing round Lond Island, made sail along 
the land towards Cape Garry, there being a chan- 
nel about 2 or 3 miles wide between the pack and 
the shore. 

The wind now failed us, and I experienced 
some little difficulty in the management of the 
engines and boiler ; the latter primed so violently 
as to send the water over our top gallant yard, 
and the tail valve of the condenser by some means 
had got out of its seat, and admitted air to the 
condenser; but eventually we got the engines 
to work well, and steamed across Cress^vell Bay 
during the night. The pack rested against Fury 
Point, and an east wind springing up, we made 
fast to a large grounded mass of ice in Adelaide 
?Bay, about 4 mile off shore, and in 3 fathoms 
water, at eleven o'clock this morning. Having 
managed the engines for twenty-four consecutive 
hours, I was not sorry to get into bed. We were 
hardly out of Brentford Bay when fulmar petrels 
and white whales were seen ; the first we have 



Aug. 1859. TRACES OF OUR VISIT. 301 

noticed for eleven and a half months. Dovekies 
are likewise abundant, and a seal has already been 
shot Cresswell Bay is perfectly clear of ice, but 
this pale limestone land is the perfection of steril- 
ity, even with the rugged hills of Brentford Bay 
in lively recollection. 

Upon the east side of Port Kenedy the bones 
of whales were found in two places a mile apart 
from each other; the lowest of them was 180 feet 
above the sea, the second was more than 300 feet 
high. The latter I examined, and found a jaw- 
bone, two ribs, a joint of the vertebrae, and frag- 
ments of other bones, all more or less buried in 
the soil, and much heavier than the bones of a 
recent animal ; they lay within 40 or 60 yards of 
each other, and upon a little flat patch of rather 
rich earth, a rocky hill above, and steep slope 
below ; — they are also nearly a mile inland. 

Of the traces which we have left behind us, the 
most considerable are the graves of our two ship- 
mates within the western point of our little har- 
bor ; they were tastefully sodded round, and plant- 
ed over with the usual Arctic flowers. There is 
our record in a conspicuous cairn at the west 
point of Depot or Transition Bay : we left also 
three cases of pemmican near the east end of 
the Long Lake, and our travelling boat near its 
west end, at the head of False Strait. 

Monday ,Votli. — Strong east winds, with much 
rain, have imprisoned us here for the last four 
26 



302 A WHITE WHALE SHOT. Chai. XVII. 

days, and driven the whole pack close in, com- 
pletely filling up Cresswell Bay. We remain fast 
to the grounded ice, which shields us from pres- 
sure, otherwise we should have been driven irre- 
trievably on shore. A couple more seals and a 
white whale have been shot ; the latter measured 
182 feet long, and proved to be a female of ordi- 
nary dimensions, and of an uniform cream color ; 
the eyes are extremely small, and orifices of the 
ears scarcely large enough to admit a crow-quill. 
We dined off steaks of the flesh, and prefer it to 
seal, which it very much resembles, but it is not 
quite so tender ; the skin is greatly prized by tlie 
Greenlanders as an antiscorbutic ; it is a sort of 
gristly gelatinous substance, nearly half an inch 
thick, and possessing very little taste ; fried and 
eaten with fish-sauce, it reminded me of cod 
sound, though not so good. 

The blubber fills two twenty-gallon casks; it 
produces oil of a quality superior to seal oil ; not 
an ounce of the flesh or skin of this huge animal 
has been thrown away, the men having a whole- 
some dread of scurvy, and unbounded confidence 
in "blood-meat," such as this! The Doctor has 
picked up a few fossils very similar to those for- 
merly brought home from Port Leopold. 

To our great joy the east wind died away this 
morning, and immediatelj^ a west wind sprang 
up, which very quickly freshened to a smart gale. 
At four o'clock this afternoon we were able to 



Aug. 1859. PASS FUEY BEACH. 303 

make sail, the ice having moved about 3 miles 
off shore. Passed within a mile of Fury Beach 
two hours afterwards, and saw the framing of the 
house, the boats and casks very distinctly. 

Vjth. — After passing Fury Beach it fell calm, 
so we steamed up as far as Batty Bay. On Tues- 
day afternoon we w^ere off Port Leopold, run- 
ning fast, w^hen thick fog came on, and we got 
involved in loose ice, and seriously damaged our 
rudder. The boats and stores at Port Leopold 
appeared to remain as we left them last year. 
The flag-staff on the summit of North-east Cape 
(over Whale Point) is still standing, but not 
erect. 

Fog and ice obstructed our progress during 
the night; but this morning when I came on 
deck at eight o'clock, the day was bright, clear, 
and charming ; no ice visible, except about 
Leopold Island, which was now some miles be- 
hind us. Towards evening the wind became 
contrary. 

Sunday evening, 2157^. — At sea — out of sight of 
land ! 

On the 19th we were somewhat delayed by 
loose ice off Cape Hay, but by noon yesterday 
were close off Cape Burney, and whilst almost 
becalmed there, a mother bear swam off to us 
with two interesting cubs about the size of very 
large dogs. Foolish creatures ! a volley of rifles 
decided their fate in a very few seconds. Not 



304 CAPTAIN YOUNG'S JOURNEY. Chap. XVII. 

finding any whaling vessels off Pond's Inlet, the 
land-ice which shelters the whales having all di.s- 
appeared, we therefore concluded that the whalers 
had left in consequence, so, without seeking for 
them further south, at once changed our course 
for Disco. 

To-day only a few icehergs have been seen. 
There is a good deal of swell, so we tumble 
about. Roast veal has appeared amongst the 
delicacies of our table since the battue of 3'es- 
terday, and Christian has asked for a portion 
of the old bear to carry home to his mother. 
Bear's flesh is really considered a delicacy in 
Greenland. 

25/A. — Becalmed off Hare Island, and getting 
the steam ready. We are onl}'- 108 miles from 
Godhavn, and the anxiety to clutch our letters 
has become intolerable. No pack-ice has been 
met with in our passage across Baffm's Bay, but 
many icebergs. This morning the lofty snow- 
clad land of Noursoak and Disco was beauti- 
fully distinct; and at the same time the wind 
died away, leaving us, at least, the opportunity 
to contemplate at our leisure their gloomy gran- 
deur. 

2Wi. — Steamed for ten hours last night. Fair 
winds and calms have alternated since then, Ijut 
this evening we are within 20 miles, and hope 
soon to get into port. I have been reading over 
Young's report of his spring journey. It com- 



Aug. 1859. CAPTAIN YOUNG'S JOURNEY. 305 

prises seventy-eight days of sledge-travelling, and 
certa,inly under most discouraging circumstances. 
Leaving the ship on 7th April, he crossed the 
western strait to Prince of Wales' Land, and 
thence traced its shore to the south and west. 
On reaching its southern termination — Cape 
Swinburne, so named in honor of Rear-Admiral 
Swinburne, a much-esteemed friend of Sir J. 
Franklin, and one of the earliest supporters of 
this final expedition — he describes the land as 
extremely low and deeply covered with snow, the 
heavy grounded hummocks which fringed its mo- 
notonous coast alone indicating the line of demar- 
cation betwixt land and sea. To the north-east of 
this terminal cape the sea was covered with level 
floe formed in the fall of last year, whilst all to 
the north-westward of the same cape was pack 
consisting of heavy ice-masses, formed perhaps 
years ago in far distant and wider seas. 

Young attempted to cross the channel which 
he discovered between Prince of Wales' Island 
and Victoria Land ; but from the rugged nature 
of the ice, found it quite impracticable with the 
means and time remaining at his disposal. Young 
expresses his firm, conviction that this channel is 
so constantly choked up with unusually heavy ice 
as to be quite unnavigable ; it is, in fact, a contin- 
uous ice-stream from the N.W. His opinion coin- 
cides with my own, and with those of CaptaiUuS 
Ommanney and Osborn, when those officers ex- 
26* u 



30G CAPTAIN YOUNG'S JOURNKY. Cuxv. XVII. 

plored the north-western shores of Prince of 
Wales' Land in 1851. 

Fearing that his provisions might run short he 
sent hack one sledge with four men, and con- 
tinued his march with only one man and the 
dogs for forty da3's! The3^ were obliged to 
build a snow-hut each night to sleep in, as the 
tent was sent back with the men ; but latterly, 
wdien the weather became more mild, they pre- 
ferred sleeping on the sledge, as the constructing 
of a snow-hut usually occupied them for two 
hours. Young completed the exploration of this 
coast beyond the point marked upon the charts 
as Osborn's flxrthest, up nearly to lat. 73° N., but 
no cairn was found. Young, however, recognized 
the remarkably shaped conical hills spoken of by 
Osborn, when he at his farthest, in 1851, struck 
off to the westv/ard. 

The coast-line througliout was extremely low ; 
and in the thick disagreeable weather which he 
almost constantly experienced, it was often a 
matter of great difficulty to prevent straying 
ofl" the coast-line inland. He commenced his 
return on the 11th May, and reached the ship on 
7th June, in wretched health and depressed in 
spirits. 

Directly his health was. partially re-established, 
he, in spite of the Doctor's remonstrances, as I 
have before said, again set out on the 10th with 
his party of men and the dogs, to complete tlie 



Aug. 1859. HOBSON'S JOURNEY. 307 

exploration of both shores of the continuation of 
Peel Soundj between the position of the '■ Fox ' 
and the points reached bj Sir James Eoss in 
1849, and Lieutenant Broy/ne in 1851. This he 
accomplished without finding any trace of the 
lost expedition, and the parties were again on 
board by 28th June. The ice travelled over in 
this last journey was almost all formed last au- 
tumn. 

The extent of coast-line explored by Captain 
Young amounts to 380 miles, whilst that discov- 
ered by Hobson and mj^self amounts to nearly 
420 miles, making a total of 800 geographical 
miles of new^ coast-line which we have laid down. 

Hobson's report is a minute record of all that 
occurred during his journey of seventy-four days, 
and includes a list of all the relics brought on 
board, or seen by him. He suffered very severely 
in health : when only ten days out from the ship, 
traces of scurvy appeared ; when a month absent 
he walked lame ; towards the latter end of the 
journey he was compelled to allow himself to be 
dragged upon the sledge, not being able to walk 
more than a few yards at a time ; and on arriving 
at the ship on the 14th June, poor Hobson was 
unable to stand. How strongly this bears upon 
the last sad march of the lost crews ! And yet 
Hobson's food throughout the whole journey was 
pemmican of the very best quah ty, the most 
nutritious description of food that we know of, 



308 nOBSON'S JOURNEY. Ciiai'. XVII. 

and viiried q^casioually by such game as thoy 
were able to shoot In spite of this fresh-meat 
diet, scurvy advanced Avith rapid strides. 

After leaving me at Cape Victoria, he says — 
" No difficulty was experienced in crossing James 
Itoss Strait. The ice appeared to be of but oue 
year's growth ; and although it was in many places 
much crushed up, we easily found smooth leads 
through the lines of hummocks ; many very heavy 
masses of ice, evidently of foreign formation, have 
been here arrested in their drift : so large are they 
that, in the gloomy weather we experienced, they 
were often taken for islands." 

Again, at Cape Felix, he observes, — " Tlie 
pressure of the ice is severe, but the ice itself is 
not remarkably heavy in character ; the shoalness 
of the coast keeps the line of pressure at consid- 
erable distance from the beach ; to the northward 
of the island the ice, as far as I could see, was 
very rough, and crushed up into large masses." 
Here we notice the gradual change in the char- 
acter of the ice as Ilobson left the Boothian shore 
and advanced towards Victoria Strait. The " very 
heavy masses of ice, evidently of foreign forma- 
tion," had drifted in from the N.W. through 
M'Clure Strait ; Victoria Strait was full of it ; 
and Hobson's description of the ice he passed 
over clearly illustrates how Franklin, leaving 
clear water behind him, pressed his ships into the 
pack when he attempted to force through Victoria 



Aug. 1859. HOCSON'S JOURNEY. 309 

Strait. How very different the result might and 
probably would have been had he known of the 
existence of a ship-channel, sheltered by King 
William Island from this tremendous "polar 
pack"! 

Hobson left King William Island on the last 
day of May, having spent thirty-one days on its 
desolate shores. During that period one bear and 
five willow grouse were shot ; one wolf and a few 
foxes were seen. One poor fox was either so des- 
joerately hungry, or so charmed with the rare sight 
of animated beings, that he played about the 
party until the dogs snapped him up, although in 
harness and dragging the sledge at the time. A 
few gulls were seen, but not until after the first 
week in June. 

I have already explained how Hobson found 
the records and the boat : he exercised his dis- 
cretionary power with sound judgment, and com- 
pleted his search so well, that, in coming over 
the same ground after him, I could not discover 
any trace that had escaped him. 

I quite agree with him that there may be 
many small articles beneath the snow; but that 
cairns, graves, or any conspicuous objects could 
exist upon so low and uniform a shore, without 
our having seen them, is almost impossible. 

Sunday evening, 2Wi. — Calm, warm, lovely, 
weather ; and we are thoroughly enjoying it in 
the quiet security of Lievely harbor, or Godhavn. 



310 LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. CiiAr. XVII. 

Although Friday night was dark, we managed to 
find out the harbor's mouth, and slowly steamed 
into it. The inhabitants were awoke bj'' Petersen 
demanding our letters, but great indeed was our 
disappointment at finding only a very few letters 
and two or three papers, and these for the officers 
only! It appears that on the arrival of the 
whalers in early spring, the ice prevented their 
usual communication with the settlement, there- 
fore the letters on board of them were imavoida- 
bly carried northward. Some few, however, which 
came out in the 'Truelove,' were landed at tlie 
neighboring settlement of Noursoak, and from 
thence were sent back to Godhavn. 

It is rather a nervous thing opening the first 
letters after a lapse of more than two years. We 
received them in our beds at three o'clock in the 
morning ; and when we met at breakfast Avere 
able, thank God ! to congratulate each other upon 
the receipt of cheering home news. Lad}^ Frank- 
lin and Miss Cracroft wTote to me from Bourne- 
mouth in March last. They have travelled more 
than we have, I think, having visited almost 
all the countries borderino; the Mediterranean 
and Black Seas, posted through the Crimea, and 
steamed up the Danube ! I am much gratified to 
learn that I have been elected a member of the 
Royal Yacht Squadron during my absence. 

Yesterda}^ morning I called upon the inspector, 
Mr. Olrik, who has been home to Denmark since I 



Aug. 1859. STAY AT GODHAVK 311 

saw him last spring. In the autumn he took Mrs. 
Olrik and his family to Copenhagen^, and has but 
just returned alone. He received me with his 
usual kindnesS;, and promised me such supplies as 
we require. It so happens that none of my expect- 
ed business letters have arrived, so that I am not 
accredited in the slightest degree, nor is there 
any hint thrown out as to where I am to take the 
■^Fox.' Mr. Olrik gave me a large bundle of 
^Illustrated London News,' which was exceed- 
ingly acceptable, and told us that Austria was at 
war with France and Sardinia. By the latest 
news a battle had been fouarht and won bv the 
latter Powers. Most fortunately a ' Navy List ' 
had come out to Hobson, otherwise I think we 
should have been utterly brokenhearted. We 
study its pages daily, and delight in noticing the 
advancement of our many friends. 

\8t Sept., Thursday night. — At sea, on the passage, 
and already enjoying, by anticipation, the pleas- 
ures of home ! Five busy days v/ere spent in 
Godhavn, supplying our little wants, in as far as 
they could be supplied, including 100 gallons of 
light beer. The natives were very useful, the 
men bringing off water, stone ballast, and sand, 
and a troop of Esquimaux girls scrubbing the 
paintwork and the decks. 

Each evening the men went on shore, taking 
with them a very limited quantity of rum-punch 
for the ladies, and danced for several hours in a 



312 PART FROM OUR ESQUIMAUX FRIENDS. Chap. XVII. 

large store ; wliilst the officers and myself spent 
the time with Mr. Olrik or the other Danish gen- 
tlemen — Messrs. Andersen, Bulbrue, and Tyner. 
Nothing could exceed their kindness to us, whilst 
their good humor and their anecdotes, sometimes 
expressed in quaint English, greatly amused us. 
We shall always retain very agreeable recollec- 
tions of Godhavn ; twice has it been to us an Arc- 
tic home. 

Mr. Petersen's nieces, the belles of the place, 
came on board (Miss Sophia with scented cambric 
handkerchief and gloves — in other respects she 
adheres to the Esquimaux costume); they were 
pleased with the organ, although it is out of re- 
pair, and they sang together very sweetly for us. 
Our Esquimaux shipmates, Christian and Samuel, 
were discharged, and, by their own request their 
wages given in charge to Mr. Olrik and Mr. Bul- 
brue ; they seemed to understand the importance 
of husbandina; their wealth. Christian said he 
thought it would not be all spent under three 
years. First of all he intended buA'ing a rifle for 
his brother, and then some wood to build a house 
for himself 

I was gratified very much when I heard them 
say that the men had treated them Ycry well — 
"all the same as brothers;" and they really 
seemed sorry to leave the ship ; the}'' would come 
on board and look gravely about at everything 
as if regretting the coming separation. Even 



Sept. 1859. LEAVE GODHAVN. 313 

our poor dogs seemed to think the ship their nat- 
ural abode ; although landed at the settlement, 
they soon ran round the harbor to the point near- 
est the ship, and there, upon the rocks, spent the 
whole period of our stay. 

On Tuesday night we set off some fireworks on 
shore to amuse the natives, for I intended sailing 
next day, but the wind prevented my doing so. 
The last day was spent in the interchange of 
presents between our Danish friends and our- 
selves ; indeed, the sincere hearty good feeling 
which existed between every individual in the 
^ Fox ' and the inhabitants of the settlement was 
as gratifying as apparent. Almost the only fresh 
suj)plies obtained here were rock cod and salmon- 
trout from Disco fiord. During our stay the 
weather was delightful; indeed it was the first 
really fine weather they had experienced at God- 
liavn during the present season, the summer hav- 
ing: been cold and wet. 

lOzf/i ^ept., Saturday night. — To-day we passed 
to the eastward of Cape Farewell, but about 100 
miles to the south of it. The last iceberg was 
seen to-day ; and now we are running along 
swiftly before a pleasant N.W. breeze. Hitherto 
we have had every variety of wind and weather, 
from a calm to a gale, but generally the wind has 
been favorable. The change of temjoerature is 
already perceptible. 

Saturday nighty Vltli Sept. — A week of favora- 
27 



314 VOYAGE HOME. CiiAr. XVII. 

ble gales has brought us from Cape Farewell to 
within 400 miles of Land's End, or about 1100 
miles of distance. But such rough weather is 
not pleasant in so small a vessel, however much 
"like a duck " she maybe; and our two years' 
sojourn in the still waters of the frozen North has 
made us very susceptible of .the change. 



CONCLUSION. - - 315 



CONCLUSION. 



We sailed all the way liome from Greenland^ yet 
the ^Fox' made the passage in only nineteen 
days, arriving in the English Channel on the 20th 
September; on the evening of the 21st I reached 
London (having landed at Portsmouth), and made 
known to the Admiralty the result of my voyage. 

On the 23rd September the 'Fox' was taken 
into dock at Blackwall ; and, through the kind- 
ness and promptitude of the Lords of the Admi- 
ralty, I was enabled on the 27th, when the crew 
were assembled for the last time, to present the 
Arctic medal to such of my companions as had 
not already received it for previous Arctic ser- 
vice, and also to inform Lieutenant Hobson that 
his promotion to the rank of Commander would 
speedily take place. 

I will not intrude upon the reader, who has 
followed me through the pages of this simple 
narrative, any description of my feelings on find- 
ing the enthusiasm with which we were all re- 
ceived on landing upon our native shores. The 
blessing of Providence had attended our efforts. 



316 CONCLUSION. 

and more than a full measure of approval from 
our friends and country-men has been our reward. 
For myself the testhnonial given me by the offi- 
cers and crew of the * Fox ' has touched me per- 
haps more than all. The purchase of a gold 
chronometer, for presentation to me, was the first 
use the men made of their earnings ; and as long 
as I live it will remind me of that perfect har- 
mony, that mutual esteem and goodwill, which 
made our ship's company a happy little commu- 
nity, and contributed materially to the success of 
the expedition. 

The names I have given to my discoveries are, 
with the exception of those by which I have en- 
deavored to honor the members of the lost expe- 
dition, the names of active supporters of the 
recent search, and friends of Franklin and his 
companions, though such names are far from 
exhausting the number of those who have the 
highest claims to distinction on both grounds. 

It will be observed that I have refrained from 
repeating names which have already been com- 
memorated by preceding commanders, and which 
therefore are already in our charts. Besides 
the individuals already mentioned in the nar- 
rative, Sir Thomas D. Acland, one of the most 
zealous promoters of the search, both in and 
out of the House of Commons ; Monsiem* De 
la Roquette, Vice-President of the Geographical 
Society of Paris, and author of an interesting bio- 



CONCLUSION. 317 

graphy of Franklin ; Rear- Admiral Fitzroy ; and 
Major-General Pasley, K.E.j stand higli amongst 
those whom it has been my privilege to honor. 

Although much talent has been brought to 
bear upon the deciphering of the letters found in 
a pocketbook near Cape Herschel (page 248 ante), 
yet, from their being so very much defaced by 
time, only a few detached sentences have been 
made out, and these do not in the slightest de- 
gree refer to the proceedings of the lost expedi- 
tion. 

It will be seen that I have noticed (page 260) 
the discrepancy between the number of souls ac- 
counted for by the Point Victory Record, and the 
generally received opinion that 138 individuals 
sailed in the ' Erebus ' and ' Terror.' 

I am now enabled to state, on the authority 
of the Admh^alty, that only one hundred and 
thirty-four individuals left the United Kingdom, 
and of these five men subsequently returned : 
one by H.M.S. ^ Rattler,' and four by the transport 
^ Barretto Junior ; ' so that only one hundred and 
twenty-nine — the exact number mentioned in 
the record — actually entered the ice. The five 
invahds were — 

From H.M.S. * Terror,' Jolin Bro-wn, Able seaman. 

" Eobert Carr, Armorer. 

" James Elliot, Sallmaker. 

" William Aitken, Marine. 

From H.M.S. 'Erebus,' Thomas Birt, Armorer. 

27* 



318 CONCLUSION. 

The relics we have brought home ha\ e been 
deposited by the Admiralty in the United Service 
Institution, and now form a national memento — 
the most simple and most touching — of those 
heroic men who perished in the path of duty, 
but not until they had achieved the grand object 
of their voyage, — the Discovery of iJic North- West 
Passage. 

London^ 2Ath Nov. 1859. 



APPENDIX. 



No. I. 

A LETTER TO VISCOUNT PALMERSTON, K.G., &c., 
EROM LADY FRANKLIN. 

60, Pall Mall, December 2, 1856. 

My Lord, — 

I trust I may be permitted, as the widow of Sir 
John Franklin, to draw the attention of Her Majesty's 
Government to the unsettled state of a question which 
a few months ago was under their consideration, and 
to express a well-grounded hope that a final effort may 
be made to ascertain the fate and recover the remains 
of my husband's expedition. 

Your Lordship will allow me to remind you that a 
Memorial* with this object in view (of which I enclose 
a printed copy) was early in June last presented to? 
and kindly received by you. It had been signed 
within forty-eight hours by all the leading men of 
science then in London who had an opportunity of 
seeing it, and might have received an indefinite aug- 
mentation of worthy names had not the urgency of the 
question forbidden delay. To the above names were 
appended those of the Arctic officers who had been 
personally engaged in the search, and who, though 

* See Appendix II. 



320 APPENDIX. No. I. 

absent, were known to be favorable to another elTort 
for its completion. And though that united applica- 
tion obtained no immediate result, it was felt, and by 
no one more strongly than myself, that it never could 
be utterly wasted. 

I venture also to allude to a letter of my own ad- 
dressed to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty 
in April last, and a copy of which accompanied, I be- 
lieve, the Memorial to your Lordship, wherein I ear- 
nestly deprecated any premature adjudication of the 
reward claimed by Dr. Rae, on the ground that the 
fate of my husband's expedition was not yet ascer- 
tained, and that it was due both to the living and the 
dead to complete a search which had been hitherto 
pursued under the greatest disadvantage, for want of 
the clue which was now for the first time in our hands. 

The Memorial above alluded to, and my own letter 
of earlier date, had not yet received any reply, when, 
in the month of July, the Lords of the Admiralty 
caused prompt inquiries to be made as to the possi- 
bility of equipping a ship at that advanced season, 
in time for effective operations in the field of search. 
The result was that it was pronounced to be too late, 
and the subject was dismissed for that season. 

Upon this I addressed a letter to the Board (of 
which I take the liberty to enclose a copy), re. -^pect fully 
showing that by this unfortunate delay the opportunity 
had also been taken from me of sending out a vessel 
at my own cost, a measure which I had previously felt 
myself obliged to state to their Lordships would be the 
alternative of any adverse decision on their part. I 
pleaded therefore, as the only remedy for the loss of 
an entire summer season, that the route by Behring 
Straits was by some of the most competent Arctic 



No. I. APPENDIX. 321 

officers considered preferable to the eastern route, and 
that the equipment of a vessel for this direction need 
not take place before the close of the year. 

In reply, their Lordships caused me to be informed 
that " they had come to the decision not to send any 
expedition to the Arctic regions in the present year." 

This communication, however, was in answer merely 
to my own letter. The Memorialists had as yet re- 
ceived no reply, and accordingly the President of the 
Royal Society put a question respecting the Memorial 
in the House of Lords at the close of the session, 
which drew from one of Her Majesty's Ministers ( Lord 
Stanley), after some preliminary observations, the as- 
surance that Her Majesty's Government would give 
the subject their serious consideration during the re- 
cess. I may be permitted to add, that, in the con- 
versation which followed, Lord Stanley expressed him- 
self as very favorably disposed towards a proposition 
made to him by Lord Wrottesley, that, in the event of 
there being no Government expedition, I should be as- 
sisted in fitting out my own expedition ; an assurance 
which Lord Wrottesley had the kindness to communi- 
cate to me by letter. 

But, my Lord, as nothing has occurred within the 
last few months to weaken the reasons which induced 
the Admiralty, early in July last, to contemplate an- 
other final effbrt, and as they put it aside at that time 
on the sole ground that it was too late to equip a ves- 
sel for that season, 1 trust it will be felt that I am not 
endeavoring to re-open a closed question, but merely 
to obtain the settlement of one which has not ceased 
to be, and is even now, under favorable consideration. 
The time has arrived, however, when I trust I may be 

V 



322 APPENDIX. Ko. L 

pardoned for pressing your Lordship, with whom I 
believe the question rests, for a decision, since by 
further delay even my own ellbrts may be paralyzed. 

I have cherished the hope, in common with others, 
that we are not waiting in vain. Should, however, 
that decision unfortunately throw upon me the respon- 
sibility and the cost of sending out a vessel myself, I 
beg to assure your Lordship that I shall not shrink, 
either from that weighty responsibility, or from the 
sacrifice of my entire available fortune for the purpose, 
supported as I am in my convictions by such high 
authorities as those whose opinions are on record in 
your Lordship's hands, and by the hearty sympathy of 
many more. 

But before I take upon myself so heavy an obliga- 
tion, it is my bounden duty to entreat Her Majesty's 
Government not to disregard the arguments which 
have led so many competent and honorable men to 
feel that our country's honor is not satisfied, whilst a 
mystery w^hich has excited the sympathy of the civil- 
ized world, remains uncleared. Nor less would I en- 
treat you to consider what must be the unsatisfactory 
consequences, if any endeavors should be made to 
quench all further efforts for this object. 

It cannot be that this long-vexed question would 
thereby be set at rest, for it would still be true that in 
a certain circumscribed area within the Arctic circle, 
approachable alike from the east, and from the west, 
and sure to be attained by a combination of both 
movements, lies the solution of our unhappy country- 
men's fate. While such is the case, the question will 
never die. I believe that again and again would efforts 
be made to reach that spot, and that the Government 



No. I. APPENDIX. 323 

could not look on as unconcerned spectators, nor be 
relieved in public opinion of the responsibility they had 
prematurely cast off. 

But I refrain from pursuing this argument, though, 
if any illustration were wanting of its truth, I think it 
might be found in the events that are passing before 
our eyes. 

It is now about two years ago that one of Her 
Majesty's Arctic ships was abandoned in the ice. In 
due time this ship floated away, was picked up by an 
American v/haler, carried into an American port, and 
(all property in her having been relinquished by the 
Admiralty) was purchased of her rescuers by the 
American Government, by whom she has been lav- 
ishly re-equipped, and is now on her passage to Eng- 
land, a free gift to the Queen. The ' Resolute ' is 
about to be delivered up in Portsmouth harbor, not 
merely in evidence of the cordial relation existing be- 
tween the two countries, but as a lively token of the 
deep interest and sympathy of the Americans in that 
great cause of humanity in which they have so nobly 
borne their part. The resolution of Congress expressly 
states this motive, and indeed there could be no other, 
as it is well known that for any purpose but the Arctic 
service those expensive equipments would be perfectly 
useless and require removal. 

My Lord, you will not let this rescued and restored 
ship, emblematic of so many enlightened and generous 
sentiments, fail, even partially, in her significant mis- 
sion. I venture to hope that she will be accepted in 
the spirit in which she is sent. I humbly trust that 
the American people, and especially that philanthropic 
citizen who has spent so largely of his private fortune 
in the search for the lost ships, and to whom was com- 



324 ArPENDIX. No. I. 

mittcd by his Government the entire charge of the 
equipment of the 'Resolute,' will be rewarded for this 
signal act of sympathy, by seeing her restored to her 
original vocation, so that she may bring back from the 
Arctic seas, if not some living remnant of our long-lost 
countrymen, yet at least the proofs that they have 
nobly perished. 

I need not add that we have as yet no proofs, what- 
ever may be our melancholy forebodings. That such 
is the fact, in a legal point of view, is shown by a case 
now or lately pending in the Scotch Courts, in which 
the right of succession to a considerable property is not 
admitted, on account of the absence of all but conjec- 
tural testimony. In this aspect of the question I have 
no personal interest, but it is one that may not be 
deemed unworthy of your Lordship's attention, com- 
bined as it must be with the fact that our most ex- 
perienced Arctic officers are willing to stake their 
reputation upon the feasibility of reaching the spot 
where so many secrets lie buried, if only they arc sup- 
plied with the adequate means. 

It would be a waste of words to attempt to refute 
again the main objections that have been urged against 
a renewed search, as involving extraordinary danger 
and risking life. The safe return of our officers and 
men cannot be denied, neither will it be disputed that 
each succeeding year diminishes the risk of casualty ; 
and indeed, I feel it would be especially superfluous 
and unseasonable to argue against this particular ob- 
jection, or against the financial one which generally 
accompanies it, at a moment when new expeditions 
for the glorious interests of science, and which every 
true lover of science and of his country must rejoice in, 
are contemplated for the interior of Africa and other 



No. I. APPENDIX. 325 

parts which are far less favorable to human life than 
the icy regions of the north. 

But with respect to expenditure, I may perhaps be 
allowed, as I have alluded to that topic, again to call 
to your Lordship's attention that the 'Resolute' is 
ready equipped for Arctic service by the munificence 
of another nation, and to add that other Arctic ships, 
equally well fitted for the purpose, are lying useless 
in Her Majesty's dockyards, along with accumulated 
Arctic stores brought back by the late expeditions, and 
therefore long since included in the navy estimates;; 
and which, besides, are available only for Arctic ser- 
vice, and, if sold, would be bought at only nominal 
prices. In addition to the above sources of supply are 
those already existing on the Arctic shores, which are 
now studded with depots of provisions and fuel, left 
from the last and former expeditions, and fit as ever 
for use, because of the conservative properties of the 
climate. 

But even were the expenditure greater than can thus 
reasonably be expected, I submit to your Lordship that 
this is a case of no ordinary exigenc)\ These 135 men 
of the 'Erebus' and 'Terror' (or perhaps I should 
rather say the greater part of them, since we do not 
yet know that there arc no survivors) have laid down 
their lives, after sufferings doubtless of unexampled 
severity, in the service of their country, as truly as if 
they had perished by the rifle, the cannon-ball, or the 
bayonet. Nay more, — by attaining the northern and 
already-surveyed coast of America, it is clear that they 
solved the problem which was the object of their la- 
bors, or, in the beautiful words of Sir John Richardson, 
that " they forged the last link of the North- West pas- 
sage with their lives." 
28 



326 APPENDIX. No. I. 

Surely, then, I may plead for such men, that a care- 
ful search be made for any possible survivor, that the 
bones of the dead be sought for and gathered together, 
that their buried records be unearthed, or recovered 
from the hands of the Esquimaux, and above all, that 
their last written words, so precious to their bereaved 
families and friends, be saved from destruction. A 
mission so sacred is worthy of a government which has 
grudged and spared nothing for its heroic soldiers and" 
sailors in other fields of warfare, and will surely be 
approved by our gracious Queen, who overlooks none 
of Her loyal subjects suffering and dying for their 
country's honor. 

This final and exhausting search is all I seek in be- 
half of the first and only martyrs to Arctic discovery in 
modern times, and it is all I ever intend to ask. 

But if, notwithstanding all I have presumed to urge, 
Her Majesty's Government decline to complete the 
work they have carried on up to this critical moment, 
but leave it to private hands to finish, I must then 
respectfully request that measure of assistance in be- 
half of my own expedition which I have been led to 
expect on the authority of Lord Stanley, as communi- 
cated to me by Lord Wrotteslcy, and on that of the 
First Lord of the Admiralty, as communicated to 
Colonel Phipps in a letter in my possession. 

It is with no desire to avert from myself the sacrifice 
of my own funds, which I devote without reserve to the 
object in view, that I plead for a liberal interpretation 
of those communications, but I owe it to the consci- 
entious and high-minded Arctic ofticcrs who have gen- 
erously offered me their services, that my expedition 
should be made as efficient as possible, however re- 



No. I. APPENDIX. 327 

stricted it may be in extent. The Admiralty, I feel 
sure, will not deny me what may be necessary for this 
purpose, since, if I do ail I can with my own means, 
any deficiencies and shortcomings of a private expedi- 
tion cannot I think be justly laid to my charge. 

In conclusion, I would earnestly entreat of Her Maj- 
esty's Government, while this subject is still under 
deliberation, that they would be pleased to obtain the 
opinions of those persons who, in consequence of their 
practical knowledge and vast experience, may be con- 
sidered best qualified to express them in the present 
emergency. And as it must be in the ranks of those 
officers who would naturally be selected for command 
of any final expedition that these qualifications will 
most assuredly be found, I trust I may be pardoned 
for directing your Lordship's attention to the names 
(which I put down in the order of their seniority) of 
Captains Collinson, Richards, McClintock, Maguire, 
and Osborn. All these officers have passed winter 
after winter in Arctic service, have carried out those 
skilful sledge operations which have added so much to 
our knowledge of Arctic Geography, and have ever, 
in the exercise of combined courage and discretion, 
avoided disaster, and brought home their crews in 
health and safety. 

I commit the prayer of this letter, for the length of 
which I beg much to apologize, to your Lordship's 
patient and kind consideration, feeling assured that, 
however the burden of it may pall upon the ear of 
some, who apparently judge of it neither by the heart 
nor by the head, you will not on that, or on any light 
ground, hastily dismiss it. Rather may you be im- 
pelled to feel that the shortest and surest way to set 



328 AVVESDIX. No. L 

the iniporinniiic question at rest, is to submit it to 
that final investigation which will satisfy the yearn- 
ings of sundving relatives and friends, and, what is 
justly of higher import to your Lordsiiip, the credit 
and honor of the country. 

I have the honor to be, etc., 

Jane Fiianklin. 
The lliglit lion. Viscount Palmcrston, K.G. 



No. II. APPEIS'DIX. 329 



No. II. 

MEMORLiL TO THE RIGHT HON. VISCOUNT 
PALMERSTON, M.P., G.C.B. 

London, June 5tli, 1856. 

Impressed with the belief that Her Majesty's missing 
ships, the ' Erebus ' and ' Terror,' or their remains, are 
still frozen up at no great distance from the spot 
whence certain relics of Sir John Franklin and his 
crews were obtained by Dr. Rae, — we whose names 
are undersigned, whether men of science and others 
who have taken a deep interest in Arctic discovery, 
or explorers who have been employed in the search 
for our lost countrymen, beg earnestly to impress 
upon your Lordship the desirableness of sending out 
an Expedition to satisfy the honor of our country, 
and clear up a mystery which has excited the sym- 
pathy of the civilized world. 

This request is supported by many persons well 
versed in Arctic surveys, who, seeing that the proposed 
Expedition is to be directed to one limited area only, 
are of opinion that the object is attainable, and with 
little risk. 

We can scarcely believe that the British Govern- 
ment, which to its great credit has made so many 
efforts in various directions to discover even the route 
pursued by Franklin, should cease to prosecute re- 
search, now that the locality has been clearly indicated 
where the vessels or their remains must lie, — includ- 
ing, as we hope, records which will throw fresh light 
on Arctic geography, and dispel the obscurity in 
which the voyage and fate of our countrymen are 
still involved. 

28* 



330 APPENDIX. No. II. 

Although most persons have arrived at the con- 
elusion that there can now be no survivors of Frank- 
lin's Expedition, yet there are eminent men in our 
own country and in America who hold a contrary 
opinion. Dr. Kane, of the United States, for example, 
who has distinguished himself by pushing farther to 
the north in search of Franklin tlian any other indi- 
vidual, and to whom the Royal Geographical Society 
has recently awarded its Founders' Gold Medal, thus 
speaks (in a letter to the benevolent Mr. Grinnell) : — 
" I am really in doubt as to the preservation of human 
life. I well know how glad I would have been, had 
my duty to others permitted me, to have taken refuge 
among the Esquimaux of Smith Strait and Etah Bay. 
Strange as it may seem to you, we regarded the coarse 
life of these people with eyes of envy, and did not 
doubt but that we could have lived in comfort upon 
their resources. It required all my powers, moral and 
physical, to prevent my men from deserting to the 
Walrus Settlements, and it was my final intention 
to have taken to Esquimaux life had Providence not 
carried us through in our hazardous escape." 

But passing from speculation, and confining our- 
selves alone to the question of finding the missing 
ships or their records, we would observe that no land 
Expedition down the Back River, like that which, with 
great difficulty, recently reached Montreal Island, can 
satisfactorily accomplish the end we have in view. 
The frail birch-bark canoes in which Mr. Anderson 
conducted his search with so much ability, the dangers 
of the river, the sterile nature of the tract near its 
embouchure, and the necessary failure of provisions, 
prevented the commencement, even, of such a search 
as can alone be satisfactorily and thoroughly accom- 



No. II. APPENDIX. 331 

plished by the crew of a man-of-war, — to say nothing 
of the moral influence of a strong armed party remain- 
ing in the vicinity of the spot until the confidence of 
the natives be obtained. 

Many Arctic explorers, independent of those whose 
names are appended, and who are absent on service, 
have expressed their belief that there are several routes 
by which a screio-^essel could so closely approach the 
area in question as to clear up all doubt. 

In respect to one of these courses, or that by Behring 
Strait, along the coast of North America, we know 
that a single sailing vessel passed to Cambridge Bay, 
within 150 miles of the mouth of the Back River, and 
returned home unscathed, — its commander having ex- 
pressed his conviction that the passage in question is 
so constantly open that ships can navigate it without 
difficulty in one season. Other routes, whether by 
Regent Inlet, Peel Sound, or across from Repulse Bay, 
are preferred by officers whose experience in Arctic 
matters entitles them to every consideration ; whilst 
in reference to two of these routes it is right to state 
that vast quantities of provisions have been left in their 
vicinity. 

Without venturing to suggest which of these plans 
should be adopted, we earnestly beg your Lordship to 
sanction without delay such an expedition as, in the 
judgment of a Committee of Arctic Voyagers and 
Geographers, may be considered best adapted to secure 
the object. 

We would ask your Lordship to reflect upon the 
great difference between a clearly-defined voyage to a 
narrow and circumscribed area, within which the miss- 
ing vessels or their remains must lie, and those formerly 
necessarily tentative explorations in various directions, 



•^32 APPENDIX. No II. 

the frequent allusions to the difficulty of w;.ich, in 
regions far to the north of the voyage now contem- 
plated, have led persons unacquainted with geography 
to suppose that such a modified and limited attempt 
as that which wc propose involves farther risk and 
may call for future researches. The very nature of the 
former cxpediiions exposed them, it is true, to risk, 
since regions had to be traversed which were totally 
unknown ; while the search we ask for is to be directed 
to a circumscribed area, the confines of which have 
already been reached without ditliculty by one of Ilcr 
Majesty's vessels. 

Now, inasmuch as France, after repeated fruitless 
efforts to ascertain the fate of La Perouse, no sooner 
heard of the discovery of some relics of that eminent 
navigator, than she sent out a Searching Expedition 
to collect every fragment pertaining to his vessels, so 
we trust that those Arctic researches which have re- 
flected much honor upon our country may not be 
abandoned at the very moment when an explanation 
of the wanderings and fate of our lost navigators seems 
to be within our grasp. 

In conclusion, we further earnestly pray that it may 
not be left to the efforts of individuals of another and 
kindred nation, already so distinguished in this cause, 
nor yet to the noble-minded widow of our lamented 
friend, to make an endeavor which can be so much 
more effectively carried out by the British Govern- 
ment. 

"We have the honor to be, &c., 
F. Beaufort, L. ITouxkr, 

R. I. MuRcnisoN, W. II. Fitton. 

F. W. Beechey, Lyon Playfair, 

Wrottesley, T. TnoRp, 



No. II. 



APPENDIX. 



E. Sabine, 

Egerton Ellesmeke, 

W. Wpirwell, 

R. Collins ON, 

W. H. Sykes, 

C. Daubeny, 

J. Fergus, 

P. E. DE Stzrelecki, 

W. II. Smyth, 

A. Majendie, 

R. FiTZROY, 

E. Gardiner Fishbourne, 

R. Brown, 

G. Macartney, 



C. WheaTstone, 
W. J. Hooker, 
J. T>. Hooker, 
J. Arrowsmith, 
P. La Trobe, 
W. A. B. Hamilton, 
R. Stephenson, 

J. E. PORTLOCK, 

C. PiAzzi Smyth, 
C. W. Pasley, 
G. Rennie, 
J. P. Gassiot, 
G. B. Airy, 

J. F. BURGOYNE. 



The following officers of the Royal Navy, who have 
been employed in the search after Franklin, and who 
are now absent from London, have previously expressed 
themselves to be favorable to the final expedition above 
recommended: — 



Captains Sir James C. 

Ross, and Sir Edvtard 

Belcher ; 
Commodore Kellett ; 
Captains Austin, 

Bird, 

Ommanney, 

Sir Robert M'Clure, 

Sherard Osborn, 

Inglefield, 



Captains Maguire, 

M'Clintock, and 

Richards ; 
Commanders Aldrich, 

Me CHAM, 

Trollope, and 
Cresswell ; 
Lieutenants Hamilton and 

PiM. 



334 APPENDIX. Ko. m. 



No. III. 

LIST OF RELICS OF THE FRANKLIN EXPEDITION, 
Brought to England in the ' Fox,' by Captain M'CujrrocK. 

Relics brought from the boat found in lat. G9^ 08' 43" 
N., long. 99° 24' 42" W., upon the West Coast of 
King William Island, May 30, 1859:— 

Two double-barrelled guns, one barrel in each is loaded. Found 
standing up against the side in the after part of the boat. 

A small Prayer Book ; cover of a small book of ' Family Prayers ; ' 
' Christian Melodies,' an inscription Avitliin the cover to " G. G." 
(Graham Gore V) ; ' Vicar of Wakefield ; ' a small Bible, interlined 
in many places, and with numerous references wi-itlen in the margin; 
a New Testament in the French language. 

Two table knives with white handles — one is marked "W. R. ; " 
a gimlet; an awl; two iron stanchions, inches long, for supporting 
a weather cloth, wliich was round the boat. 

2G pieces of silver plate — 11 spoons, 11 forks, and 4 teaspoons; 
3 pieces of thin elmboard (tingles) for repairing the boat, and meas- 
uring 11 inches by G inches, and 3-lOths inch thick. 

Piece of canvas : — Bristles for shoemaker's use, bullets, short clay 
pipe, roll of waxed twine, a wooden button, small piece of a port-fire, 
two charges of shot tied up in the finger of a kid glove, fragment of 
a seaman's blue serge frock. Covers of a small Testament and Prayer 
Book, part of a grass cigar-case, fragment of a silk hanilkcrchief, 
thread-case, piece of scented soap, three shot charges in kiil glove 
fingers, a belted bullet, a piece of silk pocket handkerchief. Two 
pairs of goggles, made of stout leather and wire gauze, instead of 
glass ; a sailmaker's palm, two small brass pocket compasses, a snood- 
ing line rolled up on a piece of leather, a needle and thread case, 
a bayonet scabbard altered into a sheath for a knife, tin water bottle 
for the pocket, two shot pouches (full of shot). 

Three spring hooks of sword belts, a gold lace band, a piece of 
thin gold twist or cord, a pair of leather goggles with crape instead 
of glass ; a small green crape veil. 

Two small packets of blank cartridge in green paper, part of a 
cherry-stick pipe stem, piece of a port-fire, a few copper nails, a 



No. III. APPENDIX. 335 

leather bootlace, a seaman's clasp-knife, two small glass, stoppered 
bottles (full), three glasses of spectacles, part of a broken pair of 
silver spectacles, German silver pencil-case, a pair of silver (?) 
forceps, such as a naturalist might use for holding or seizing small 
insects, etc. ; a small pair of scissors rolled up in blank paper, and 
to which adheres a printed government paper, such as an officer's 
warrant or appointment ; a spring hook of a sword belt, a brass 
charger for holding two charges of shot. 

A small bead purse, piece of red sealing-wax, stopper of a pocket 
flask, German silver top and ring, brass matchbox, one of the glasses 
of a telescope, a small tin cylinder, probably made to hold lucifer 
matches ; a linen bag of percussion caps of three sizes, a very large 
and old-fashioned kind, stamped " Smith's patent ; " a cap with a 
flange similar to the present musket caps used by Government, but 
smaller ; and ordinary sporting caps of the smallest size. 

Five watches. 

A pair of blue glass spectacles, or goggles, with steel fraine, and 
wire gauze encircling the glasses, in a tin case. 

A pemmican tin, painted lead color, and marked " E." (Erebus) 
in black. From its size it must have contained 20lb. or 22lb. 

Two yellow glass beads, a glass seal with symbol of Freemasonry. 

A 4-inch block, strapped, with copper hook and thimble, probably 
for the boat's sheet. 

Relics seen in lat. 69° 09' N., long. 99° 24' W., not 
brought away, 80th of May, 1859: — 

A large boat, measuring 28 ft. in extreme length, 7 ft. 3 in. in 
breadth, 2 fl;. 4 in. in depth. The markings on her stem were — 
" XXI. W. Con. N61., APr. 184." It appears that the fore part of 
the stem has been cut away, probably to reduce weight, and part 
of the letters and figures removed. An oak sledge under the boat, 
23 ft. 4 in. long, and 2 ft. wide ; 6 paddles, about 60 fathoms of deep- 
sea lead line, aiimiunition, 4 cakes of navy chocolate, shoemaker's 
box with implements complete, small quantities of tobacco, a small 
pair of very stout shooting boots, a pair of very heavy iron-shod knee 
boots, carpet boots, sea boots and shoes — in all seven or eight pairs 5 
two rolls of sheet lead, elm tingles for repairing the boat, nails of 
various sizes for boat, and sledge irons, three small axes, a broken 
saw, leather cover of a sextant case, a chain-cable punch, silk hand- 



33G APPENDIX. No. III. 

kerchiefs (black, white, and colored), towels, sponge, tooth-brush, 
hair comb, a mackintosh, gun cover (mai-ked in paint "A. 12"), 
twine, files, knives; a small worsted-work slipper, lined with calf- 
Bkin, bound with red riband; a great quantity of clothing, and a 
wolf-skin robe ; part of a boat's sail of Xo. 8 canvas, whale-line rope 
with yellow mark, and white line with red mark ; 24 iron stanchions, 
9 1-2 inches high, for supporting a weather cloth round the boat; a 
stanchion for supporting a ridge pole at a height of 3 i\. 9 in. above 
the gunwale. 

Relics found about Ross Cairn, on Point Victory, May 

and June, 1859, brought away : — 

A G-inch dip circle by Robinson, marked I 22. A case of medi- 
cines, consisting of 25 small bottles, canister of pills, ointinent, plas- 
ter, oiled silk, etc. A 2-foot rule, two joints of the cleaning i-od of a 
gun, and two small copper spindles, probably for dog-vanes of boats. 
The circular brass plate broken out of a wooden gun-case, and en- 
graved *' C. II. Osmcr, R.N." The field glass and German silver 
top of a 2-foot telescope, a coffee canister, a piece of a brass curtain 
rod. The record tin and the record, dated 25th of April, 1848. A 
6-inch double frame sextant, on which the owner's name is engraved, 
" Frederick Hornby, R.N." 

Found in a small cairn on the south side of Back 
Bay: — 

A tin record case and record. 

Seen about Ross Cairn, Point Victory, not brought 
away : — 

Four sets of boat's cooking apparatus complete, iron hoops, 4 feet 
of a copper lightning conductor, hollow brass curtain-rod three quar- 
ters of an inch in diameter, 3 pickaxes, 1 shovel, old canvas, a pile of 
warm clothing and blankets 4 feet high, 2 tin canteens stamped " 89 
Co., Wm. Hedges," " 88 Co., Wm. Heather," and a third one not 
marked. A small pannikin, made on board out of a 2lb. prescrved- 
meat tin, and marked " W. Mark ; " a small deal box for gtm 
wadding, the heavy iron work of a large boat, part of a canvas tent, 
part of an oar sawed longitudinally and a blanket nailed to its flat 
Bide, three boat-hook staves, strips of copper, a 9-inch single block 



No. III. APPENDIX. 337 

strapped, a piece of rope and spunyarn. Among the clothing was 
found a stocking marked "W," green, and a fragment of one marked 
" W. S." 

Kelics obtained at the Northern Cairn, near Cape 
Felix, May, 1859: — 

Fragments of a boat's ensign, metal lid of a powder-case, two eye 
pieces of sextant tubes, brass button ; worsted gloA'e, colors red, white 
and blue ; bung-stave of a marine's water keg or bottle, brass orna- 
ments to a marine's shako ; brass screw for screwing down lid, also a 
copper hinge of the lid of powder-case ; a few patent wire cartridges 
containing large shot ; part of a pair of steel spectacles, glass being 
replaced by wood, having a narrow slit in it ; two small rib bones, 
probably out of salt pork ; six. or eight packets of needles ; small 
flannel cartridge containing an ounce of damaged powder ; a small, 
roughly made cojoper apparatus for cooking ; some brimstone matches. 
Piece of white paper folded up found in the North Cairn, two pike- 
heads, narrow strip of white paper, found under one of the tent 
places ; their tent places were within a few yards of the cairn. 

Beside a small cairn, about three miles north of Point Victory, was 
a pickaxe, with broken handle ; brought away an empty tea or coffee 
canister. 

Articles noticed about the North Cann, not brought 

away : — 

Fragments of two broken bottles, several pieces of broken basins 
or cups, blue and white delfware, hoops of marine's water keg, small 
iron hoops, fragments of white line, spun yarn, canvas, and twine ; 
three small canvas tents, under which lay a bearskin and fragments 
of blankets ; two blanket frocks, several old mitts, stockings, gloves, 
pilot cloth and box cloth jackets and trousers, large shot, piece of 
tobacco and broken pipe, metal part of powder-case, top of tin can- 
ister, marked " cheese," preserved-potato tin, feathers of ptarmigan, 
and salt-meat bones. 

Seen near Cape Maria Louisa: — 

Pa"t of a drift tree, white spruce fir, 18 feet long, 10 inches in 
diameter ; it appeared to have but recently ( i.e. since thrown on 
the coast) been sawed longitudinally down the centre, and one-half 
of it removed. 

29 W 



338 APPENDIX. No. III. 

Relics obtained from the Boolhian Esquimaux, near 
tlie Magnetic Pole, in March and April, 1859: — 

Seven knives made by the natives out of materials obtalncil from 
the last expedition, one knife without a handle, one spear-head and 
staff (the latter has broken off), two files; a large spoon or geoop, 
the handle of pine or bone, the bowl of musk-ox horn; six silver 
spoons and forks, the property of Sir John Franklin, Lieutenants 
II. D. Yescomtoand Fairholme, A. M'Donald, Assistant-Surgeon, and 
]>ieutenant E. Coucli (sii])poscd from the initial letter T and crest a 
lion's head) ; a small portion of a gold watch-chain, a broken piece of 
ornamental work apparently silver gilt, a few small naval and other 
metal buttons, a silver medal obtained by "Mr. M'Donald as a prize 
for superior attainments at a medical examination in Edinburgh 
April, 18;]8 : some bows and arrows, in which wood, iron, or copper 
has been used in the construction — of no other interest. 

Remarlcs upon these Articles. 

The spear-staff measures G feet 3 inches in length, and appears to 
have been part of a light boat's gunwale: it measured (before being 
partially rounded to adapt it to its present use) about 1 1-2 by 1 3-8 
inches, is made of English oak, and upon the side has been painted 
white over green. The spear-head is of steel, riveted to two pieces 
of hoop, with bone between, and lashed on to the staff. The 
rivets are of copper nails. The native who sold it said he himself 
got it from the boat in the Fish Eivcr. Another spear of the 
same kind was seen. Tlie knives are made either of iron or steel, 
riveted to two strips of lioop, between which the handle of wood 
is inserted, and rivets passed through, securing them together. 

The rivets are almost all made out of copper nails, such as would 
bo found in a copper-fastened boat, but those which have been exam- 
ined do not bear the Government mark. It is probable that most 
of the boats of the 'Erebus' and 'Terror' were, built by contract, 
and therefore would not have tlie broad arrow stamped upon their 
iron and copper work. One small knife appears to have been a 
surgical instrument. A large knife obtained in AprU bears some 
marking, such as a sword or a cutlass might have. The man who 
sold it said he bought it from another, who picked it up on the land 
where the ship was driven ashore by the ice, and where the white 
people had thrown it away ; it was then about as long as his aim 



No. III. APPENDIX. 339 

This was the first information he received of one of the ships having 
drifted on shore. One knife and one file are stamped with the 
broad arrow. The handles are variously composed of oak, ash, pine, 
mahogany, elm, and bone. The spoons and forks were readily sold 
for a few needles each, also the buttons, which they wore as orna- 
ments on their dresses. Bows and arrows were readily exchanged 
for knives. Previously to the stranding on the neighboring shore of 
the last expedition these people must have been almost destitute of 
wood or iron. Some of them had even got only bone knives and 
spear-points. Some of their sledges were seen, consisting of two 
rolls of seal-skin, flattened and frozen, to serve as runners, and con- 
nected together by cross bars of bones. Many more knives, bows 
and buttons, similar to those brought away, might have been ob- 
tained, but no personal or important relics. 

Seen in a Snow Hut in lat. 70^° deg. N., 20th of April, 
1859, not brought away : — 

Two wooden shovels, one of them made of mahogany board, some 
spear-handles and a bow of English wood, a deal case which might 
have served for a telescope or barometer. Its external dimensions 
were : — length, 3 ft. 1 in. ; depth, 3 1-2 in. ; width, 9 in. ; two brass 
hinges remained attached to it. 

Relics obtained from the Esquimaux near Cape Nor- 
ton, upon the East Coast of King William Island, 
in May, 1859 : — 

Two tablespoons; upon one is scratched "W. W.," on the other 
" W. G. ; " these bear the Franklin crest ; two table forks, one bear- 
ing the Franklin crest; the other is also crested, probably Captain 
Crozier's ; silversmith's name is " I. West ; " two teaspoons, one en- 
graved "A. M. D." (A. M'Donald), the other bears the Fairholme 
crest and motto; handle of a dessert knife, into which had been 
inserted a razor (since broken off) by Milliken, Strand ; buttons, 
wood and iron, were here in abundance, but as enough of these had 
already been obtained no more were purchased. 

Taken out of some deserted snow-huts near here, some scraps of 
different kinds of wood, such as could not be obtained from a boat — 
teak or African oak. 

Found lying about the skeleton, 9 miles eastward of Cape Her- 



340 APPENDIX. No. III. 

schcl, May, 1859: — The tie of black silk neckerchief; fragments of 
a double-breasted blue cloth waistcoat, with covered silk buttons, and 
edged with braid ; a scrap of a coloreil cotton shirt, silk covered 
buttons of blue cloth great-coat, a small clothes-brush, a horn pocket- 
comb, a leathern pocket-book, which fell to pieces when thawed and 
dried; it contained 9 or 10 letters, a few leaves apparently blank ; 
a sixpence, date 1831 ; and a half-sovereign, dated 1841. 

Articles seen among the natives at Cape Norton, not purchased, — 
Bows made of wood, knives, uniform and plain buttons, a slcd'^e 
made of two long pieces of hard wood. 

From beside an Esquimau.x stone-mark, on the east side of 
Montreal Island: — Part of a prcscrvcd-mcat tin, painted red; part 
of the rim of some strong copper case or vessel ; pieces of iron hoop, 
two pieces of flat iron, an iron hook bolt, a piece of sheet copper. 

Articles seen about a snow-hut near Point Booth, not purchased : 
—Eight or 10 fir poles, varying from 5 feet to 10 feet in length, the 
stoutest being 2 1-2 inches in diameter. Two wooden snow s^hovels 
about 3 1-2 feet long, and made of pieces of plank painted white or 
pale yellow; it occurred to me that the pieces of plank might have 
been the bottoua boards of a boat. There was abundance of wood 
fashioned into smaller articles. 

Contents of Boat's Medicine Chest : — 

One bottle labelled as zinzib. E. pulv., full; ditto, spirit, rect., 
empty; ditto, mur. hydrarg. seven-eigliths full; ditto, ol. carj-phyll., 
one-fifth full; ditto, ipce. P. co., full ; ditto, ol. menth. pip., empty; 
ditto, llq. ammon. fort., three-quarters full ; ditto, ol. olivac., full ; 
ditto, tinct. opii. camph., three-quarters full ; ditto, vin. scm. colch., 
full; ditto, quarter full; ditto, calomel, full (broken) ; ditto, hydrarg. 
hit. o.xyd., full; ditto, pulv. gregor, full (broken); ditto, magnes. 
carb., full; ditto, camplior, full; two bottles line, tolut., each quarter 
full; one bottle ipec. R. pulv., full; ditto, jalap R. pulv., full; ditto, 
scammon. pulv., full; ditto, quinac bisulph. empty; ditto (not la- 
belled), tinct. opii., three-quarters full ; one box (apparently) purga- 
tive pills, full; ditto, ointment, shrunk; ditto, emp. adhesiv., full; 
one probang, one pen wrapped up in lint, one lead pencil, one 
pewter syringe, two small tubes (test) wrapped up in lint, ono 
farthing, bandages, oil silk, Hut, thread. 




/:.,l(u^H.«^^:.-^'Jl. ST 11 A IT -s.^paP^.'l«««. 



^ 1^:^M«-"'- 







No. IV, APPENDIX. 341 



No. IV. 
GEOLOGICAL ACCOUNT OF THE AECTIC AECHIPELAGO, 

DEAWN DP PEDfCIPALLT FROM THE SPECIMENS COLLECIED BY 

Captain E. L. M'Clintock, E.N., 
Erom 1849 to 1859. 

BY THE REV. SAMUEL HAUGHTON, F.E.S., 

Fellow of Trinity College, Professor of Geology in the University of Dublin, and 
President of the Geological Society of Dublin, 

The map which accompanies this geological descrip- 
tion is arranged from the specimens brought home by- 
Captain F. L. M'Clintock, R.N., from the four Arctic 
Expeditions in which he served from 1848 to 1859. 
These specimens are all deposited in the Museum of 
the Royal Dublin Society, and form a more extensive 
and better collection of Arctic rocks and fossils than is 
to be found in any other museum in Europe. 

It will be most convenient to describe the geology 
of the Arctic Islands by the formations which are to 
be found there, which are the following : — 

1. The Granitic and Granitoid Rocks. 

2. The Upper Silurian Rocks. 

3. The Carboniferous Rocks. 

4. The Lias Rocks. 

5. The Superficial Deposits. 

I shall describe these successive formations briefly, 
and add a few remarks of a theoretical character, to 
indicate the important inferences which may be drawn 
fi-om the facts respecting them made known to us by 
M'Clintock's discoveries. 
29* 



342 APPENDIX. No. IV. 

I. — TJie Granitic and Granitoid Rocks. 

These rocks form a considerable part of North 
Greenland, on the east side of Baffin's Bay, and con- 
stitute the rock of the country at the east side of the 
island of North Devon, which forms a portion of the 
coast-line of the west of Baffin's Bay, and the north 
side of the entrance into Lancaster Sound. 

1. Whale Fish Islands, lat. 69° N., are composed of 
a very fine-grained, flaggy, black mica schist, composed 
of black mica in very small plates, occasionally putting 
on a hornblendic lustre, and minute grains of quartz 
interstratified with the mica. The softer varieties are 
cut by the natives into grissets and cooking utensils of 
various shapes, some of which resemble the cambstones 
found in Ireland, which are made from a kind of pot- 
stone, abundant in parts of the County Donegal. 

2. Upernavik, lat. 72° N., Greenland. — This district 
is famous for the occurrence of large quantities of 
plumbago, which is found in a metamorphic rock of the 
following character. Fine-grained, amorphous, grani- 
toid rock, composed of minute particles of grey quartz ; 
a honey-colored felspar of waxy lustre, of unknown 
composition ; minute particles of red semitransparent 
garnet, of conchoidal fracture ; and small particles, with 
occasional large nests, of plumbago. The plumbago 
occurs both amorphous, and in long acicular crystals. 
Sometimes the rock becomes of coarser texture and 
more crystalline, and the yellow color of the felspar 
gives place to a greenish tinge ; and it sometimes also 
becomes a felspar of perfect cleavage, semitransparent, 
and white. The dodecahedral crystals of garnet reach 
the diameter of one inch. 

The general character of the rocks near Upernavik 



No. IV. APPENDIX. 343 

is different from that of the rock in v/hich the plum- 
bago is fomid; they consist of a fine-grained black mica 
schist, with very little felspar or quartz, and intersected 
by thin veins of elvan composed of quartz and white 
felspar. The cooking utensils of the natives are made 
from this fine schist, in preference to any other descrip- 
tion of rock. 

3. Wo7nan''s Islands. — These islands, off the west 
coast of Greenland, are composed of a garnetiferous 
mica slate, formed of black mica in layers, with alter- 
nating plates composed of white felspar and quartz, and 
filled with fine garnets, rose-colored, vitreous in frac- 
ture, and transparent. 

4. Cape YorA;, lat. 76° N., Greenland. — This cape is 
composed of a fine-grained granite, consisting of 
quartz, white felspar, with minute specks of a black 
mineral, of pitchy lustre, composition not yet deter- 
mined. 

5. Wolstenholme and Wliale Sounds, lat. 11° N., 
Greenland. — At Wolstenholme Sound the granitoid 
rocks of Greenland become converted into mica slate 
and actinolite slate of a remarkable character. The 
mica slate is composed of large plates of an intimate 
mixture of black and white mica, the chemical ex- 
amination of which will doubtless prove of interest. 
These plates of mica are separated b}^ bands of pure 
white felspar. The actinolite slate is dark green, and 
formed by an almost insensible gradation from the 
mica slate. In the low ground between Wolstenholme 
and Whale Sounds, the granitic rocks cease, and are 
covered by deposits of fine red gritty sandstone, of a 
banded structure, and a remarkable coarse white con- 
glomerate. The boundary between these formations 



344 APPENDIX. No. IV. 

is also marked by the development of massc3 of doler- 
ite and clayey basalt. 

6. Carey's Islands, 7G° 40' N., Greenland, lie to the 
westward of Wolstenholme Sound, and are composed 
of a remarkable gneissose mica schist, formed of suc- 
cessive thin layers of quartz granules, containing 
scarcely any felspar, and layers of jet black mica, with 
<;ccasional facets of white mica. This mica schist 
passes into a white gneiss, composed of quartz, white 
felspar, and black mica, penetrated by veins, coarsely 
crystalised, of the same minerals. Yellow and white 
sandstones are also found in small quantity on the 
islands, reposing upon the granitoid rocks. 

7. Capes Osborn and Warrender, lat. 74° 30' N., 
North Devon. — The granitoid rocks between these 
two capes are composed of graphic granite, consisting 
of quartz (gi*ey) and white felspar; this graphic granite 
passes into a laminated gneiss, consisting of layers of 
black mica and white translucent felspar, sparingly 
mixed with quartz : with the gneiss arc interstratified 
beds of garnetiferous mica slate, consisting of quartz, 
pale greenish white felspar, black and white mica in 
minute spangles, and crystals of garnet, rose-colored, 
disseminated regularly through the mass. Quartzifer- 
ous bands of epidotic hornstone occur with the forego- 
ing beds; and the whole series is overlaid by red sand- 
stones, of banded structure, which bear a striking re- 
semblance to those that overlie the granitoid beds of 
Wolstenholme Sound. 

8. North Somerset. — The granitoid rocks are found 
again on the west side of the island of North Somerset, 
where they form the eastern boundary of Peel Sound. 
Boulders of granite are found at a considerable dis- 
tance (100 miles) to the north-eastward of the rock in 



I 



No. IV. APPENDIX. 345 

situ, as at Port Leopold, Cape Rennell, etc. The gen- 
eral character of the granitic rocks in the north and 
west of North Somerset are thus described by Captain 
M'Clintock: — 

" Near Cape Rennell we passed a very remarkable 
rounded boulder of gneiss or granite ; it was 6 yards in 
circumference, and stood near the beach, and some 15 
or 20 yards above it ; one or two masses of rounded 
gneiss, although very much smaller, had arrested our 
attention at Port Leopold, as then we knew of no such 
formation nearer than Cape Warrender, 130 miles to 
the north-east ; subsequently we found it to commence 
in situ at Cape Granite, nearly 100 miles to the south- 
west of Port Leopold. 

" The granite of Cape Warrender differs considera- 
bly from that of North Somerset ; the former being a 
graphic granite, composed of grey quartz and white 
felspar, the quartz predominating ; while the latter, or 
North Somerset granite, is composed of grey quartz, 
red felspar, and green chloritic mica, the latter in large 
flakes ; both the granite and gneiss of North Somerset 
are remarkable for their soapy feel." * 

To the east of Cape Bunny, where the Silurian 
Kmestone ceases, and south of which the granite com- 
mences, is a remarkable valley called Transition Val- 
ley, from the junction of sandstone and limestone that 
takes place there. The sandstone is red, and of the 
same general character as that which rests upon the 
granitoid rocks at Cape Warrender and at Wolsten- 
holme Sound. Owing to the mode of travelling, by 
sledge on the ice, round the coast, no information was 
obtained of the geology of the interior of the country, 

* Journal of the Koyal Dubliu Society, 1857. 



346 



APPENDIX. 



No. IV. 




m 




but it appears highly probable that 
the granite of North Somerset, as 
well as that of the oihcr localities 
mentioned, is overlaid by a group 
of sandstones and conglomerates, 
on which the Upper Silurian lime- 
stones repose directly. A low, 
sandy beach marks the termination 
of the valley northwards, and on this 
beach were found numerous pebbles, 
washed from the hills of the interi- 
or, composed of quartzose sandstone, 
carnelian, and Silurian limestone. 
The accompanying sketch was made 
by Captain INl'Clintock, on the spot, 
in 1849, and afterwards finished by 
Lieutenant Browne. It represents 
the island called Cape Bunny, which 
forms the eastern headland of the 
entrance of the now famous Peel 
Sound, down which the ' Erebus ' 
and ' Terror ' sailed, three years be- 
fore it was visited by Sir James C. 
Eoss and Lieutenant M'Clintock, in 
their first sledge journey on the ice. 
Cape Granite is the northern bound- 
ary of the granite, which retains the 
same character as far as Howe Har- 
bor. It is composed of quartz, red 
felspar, and dark green chlorite ; and 
is accompanied with gneiss of the 
same composition. I have in my 
possession a specimen of this gran- 



No. IV. . APPENDIX. 347 

ite, found as a pebble at Graham -Moore Bay, Bath- 
iirst Island, S.W., a locality 135 knots distant from 
Cape Granite, to the N.W. 

9. Bellofs Straits, lat. 72° N., separate North Somer- 
set from Boothia Felix. The ' Fox ' Expedition win- 
tered here in 1858, and had abundant means of ascer- 
taining the geological structure of the neighborhood. 
The junction of the granitoid and Silurian rocks occurs 
in these straits, the low ground to the east being hori- 
zontal beds of Silurian limestone, while on the west 
the granite hills of West Somerset rise to a height of 
1600 feet above the narrow straits. The granite here 
is of three varieties. 

a. Blackish grey, fine grained, gneissose granite, com- 
posed of quartz, white felspar, and large quantities of 
fine grains and flakes of hornblende, passing into black 
mica. The gneissose beds of this granite dip 13° S.E. 

jS. A red granite, graphic texture, composed of quartz 
and red felspar, coarse grained. 

y. Syenite, composed of honey-yellow felspar and 
hornblende, in very large crystals, the felspar passing 
into red and pink, and the whole rock mass penetrated 
by veins of the same material, but fine grained. This 
variety of igneous rock was met with principally at 
Pemmican Rock, western inlet of Bellot's Straits. 
Large quantities of hornblende are also met with at 
Leveque Harbor, Bellot's Straits, composed of facetted 
crystals agglutinated together into large masses, form- 
ing a crystalline hornblendic gneiss. 

10. Pond's Bay, Baffin's Bay, lat. 72° 40' N. — In 
this locality a quartziferous black mica schist underlies 
the Silurian limestone, and is interstratified with gneiss 
and garnetiferous quartz rock, all in beds, inclined 38° 
"W.S.W. (true). 



348 APPENDIX. . No. IV. 

11. Montreal Island, mouth of the Fish Rivor, lat. 
67° 45' N. — The granitoid rocks, which everywhere, 
in the Arctic Arcliipelago, underlie the Silurian lime- 
stone, appear at Montreal lifland as a gneiss, composed 
of bands of felspar (pink) and quartz (^ inch thick), 
separated by thin plates composed altogether of black 
mica; the whole rock exhibiting the phenomena of 
foliation in a marked degree. 

The east side of King William's Island, though 
composed of Silurian limestone like the rest of the 
island, is strewed with boulders of black and red 
micaceous gneiss, like that of Montreal Island, and 
black metamorphic clay slate, in which the crystals 
of mica (qu. Ottrelite) are just commencing to be 
developed. It is probable that the granitoid rocks 
appear at the surface somewhat to the eastward of 
this locality. 

12. Prince of Wales' Island, west of Peel Sound. — 
The granitoid rocks extend across Peel Sound into 
Prince of Wales' Island, in the form of a dark syenite 
composed of quartz, greenish white felspar passing 
into yellow, and hornblende. This rock is massive 
and eruptive at Cape M'Clure, lat. 72° 52' N., and 
occasionally gneissose, as at lat. 72° 13' N. Between 
these two points, at lat. 72° 37' N., a limestone blulF 
occurs containing the characteristic Silurian fossils, 
and is succeeded at 72° 40' by a ferruginous limestone, 

(bright red, and a few beds of line red sandstone, like 
those observed by M'Clintock at Transition Valley, 
North Somerset. The entire western portion of Prince 
of Wales' Land is composed of Silurian limestone, 
which in the extreme west, at Cape Acworth, becomes 
chalky in character and non-fossiliferous, resembling 



No. IV. APPENDIX. 349 

the peculiar Silurian limestone found on the vest side 
of Boothia Felix. 

II. — The Silurian Rocks. 

The Silurian rocks of the Arctic Archipelago rest 
everywhere directly on the granitoid rocks, with a 
remarkable red sandstone, passing into coarse grit, 
for their base. This sandstone is succeeded by fer- 
ruginous limestone, containing rounded particles of 
quartz, which rapidly pass into a fine greyish green 
earthy limestone, abounding in fossils, and occasion- 
ally into a chalky limestone, of a cream color, for 
the most part devoid of fossils. The average dip 
of the Silurian limestone varies from 0° to 5° N.N.W., 
and it forms occasionally high cliffs, and occasionally 
low flat plains, terraced by the action of the ice as the 
ground rose from beneath the sea. The general ap- 
pearance of the rocks is similar to the Dudley lime- 
stone, and would strike even an observer who was not 
a geologist. This resemblance to the Upper Silurian 
beds extends to the structure of the rocks on the large 
scale. Alternations of hard limestone and soft shale, 
so characteristic of the Upper Silurian beds of Eng- 
land and America, arranged in horizontal layers, give 
to the cliffs around Port Leopold the peculiar appear- 
ance which has been described by different Polar navi- 
gators as " buttress-like," " castellated ; " this appear- 
ance is produced by the unequal weathering of the 
cliff, which causes the hard limestone to stand out in 
bands. Excellent sketches of this remarkable appear- 
ance, drawn by Lieutenant Beechey, are figured at 
page 35 of Parry's First Voyage, ' Hecla ' and ' Gri- 
per,' 1819-20. The Western side of King William's 
30 



350 APPENDIX. No. IV. 

Island (now, alas ! invested with so sad an interest) is 
a good example of the low terraced form which the 
limestone rocks assume at times. 

The following lists contain the names of the princi- 
pal fossils brought home by Captain M'Clintock : — 

No. I. GARNIER BAY (Lat. 74° N. ; Long. 92° W.) 

1. Cyatliophyllum Itelianllioides, several specimens. 

2. Helioliles porosa. Gamier Bay. Another specimen from near " 

Cape Bunny. 

3. Specimens of carnelian, gneiss, chalcedony, etc., etc., from the 

shingle near Cape Bunny. 

4. Cromus Arclicus, several specimens. 

5. Atnjpa phoca (Salter). 

6. Atrypa reticularis. 

7. Brachiopoda on slab (various). 

8. Cyathophyllum. 

9. Columnaria Sutherlandi (Salter). Several specimens. 

No. n. PORT LEOPOLD (Lat. 73° 50' N.; Long. 90° 15' W.). 

1. Limestone containing numerous fossils of the Upper Silurian 

type : Calamopora Golhlandica, Goldf. PJiyncliondla cuneata t 
Dalm. Cyathophylban, sp. 

2. Dark earthy limestone, containing multitudes of the Loxonema 

M^Clintocki, as casts — 1100 feet above sea-level on North- 
east Cape. 

3. Fine specimens of selcnitc from shaly beds in cliff. 

4. Fibrous gj-psum from same. 

No. in. GRIFFITH'S ISLAND (Lat. 74° 35' N. ; Long. 95° 30' W.). 

1. Beautiful specimens of the Cromus Arclicus. PI. VI. Fi"-. 5, 

Journ. R.D.S.,Vol. I 

2. Ortlioceras GriffuM. PI. V. Fig. 1, Journ. R.D.S., Vol. L 

3. An Orthoceras with lateral siphuncle, and simple circular out- 

line of septa. 

4. Loxonema Rossi. PI. V. Figs. 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, Journ. R. D. S., 

Vol.1 

5. Numerous specimens of crinoidal limestone. 

6. Sirophomena Donnetti (Salter). Sutherland's Voyage; PI. V. 

Figs. 11, 12. 



No. IV. APPENDIX. 351 

7. Atrypa pJioca (Salter). PL V. Figs. 3, 4, 7, Journ. R. D. S., 

Vol. I. ; and a ribbed Atrypa, not identified with European 
species, and undescribed. 

8. An undescribed bryozoan Zoophyte. PI. VTI. Fig. 6, Journ. 

E. D. S., Vol. I. 

9 . Calophyllum Pliragmoceras (Salter) . Sutherland ; PI. VI. Fig. 4. 

10. Syringopora geniculata. 

11. An undescribed species of MacrocJieilus. 

No. IV. BEECHEY ISLAND. (Lat. 74° 40' N. ; Long. 92° W.). 

1. Orthoceras (species). 

2. Great multitudes of Atrypa pJioca, forming, in fact, a dark- 

colored earthly Atrypa limestone. 

3. With these -were associated many species of Loxoncma, some- 

times so abundant as to form a pale pink and whitish Loxon- 
ema limestone. 

4. A species of ribbed Atrj'pa. 

5. Crinoidal limestone in abundance. 

6. Syringopora reticulata. 

7. Calophyllum pliragmoceras (Salter). Sutherland; PI. VI. Fig. 4. 

8. Cyathophyllwn ccBspitosum, 

9. CyatliopTiyllum articulatum (Edwardes and Haime). 

10. Calamopora Gothlandica. 

11. Calamopora alveolaris. 

12. Favistella FranUini (Salter). Sutherland ; PI. VI. Fig. 8. 

13. ClisiopJiyllum Salteri. Sutherland; PI. VI. Fig. 7. 

14. Cyathopliyllum (species). 

15. Loxonema Salteri, described by Mr. Slater in Sutherland's 

' Voyage to Wellington Channel; ' PI. V. Fig. 19. 

Tills Is a fine slab of hmestone, almost together composed of 
the remains o? Loxonema Salteri and Atrypa phoca. It appears 
to have been quietly deposited at the bottom of a deep sub- 
marine depression, swarming with Pyramidellidse and deep- 
water Brachiopoda. The physical conditions indicated by the 
fossils are also rendered probable by the rock itself, which 
consists of fine grey limestone, subcrystalline, and intimately 
blended with the finest and most delicate description of mud, 
such as could only be found where the water was deep, and all 
currents far remoTed. 



352 APPENDLv. No. IV. 

No. V. CORNWALLIS ISL A^^D, Assistance Bay (Lat 74° 40' N. ; 
Long. 94° W.). 

1. Orihoceras Ommaneyi (Salter). Sutherland ; PI. V. Figs. 16, 17. 

2. Penlamerus conclddium (Dalman). Sutherland ; PI. Y. Figs. 

9, 10. 

3. Pcntamerus limestone. 

4. Cromus Arcticus. Journ. R. D. S., Vol. I. PI. VI. 

5. Cardlola Saltcri. PI. VII. Fig. 5. Journ. R. D. S., Vol. I. 

6. Syringopora rjeniculala. 

No. VL CAPE YORK, Lancaster Sound (Lat. 73° SO' N. ; 
Long. 87° W.). 
A specimen of the same fossil coral which I have named, 
doubtfully, from Beechey Island, as Favositcs or Calamopora 
Goihlandica ; it is not impossible, however, that it is not a Calam- 
opora at all, but a species of Chastctes. 

No. Vn. POSSESSION BAY, South entrance into Lancaster 
Sound (Lat. 73° 30' N. ; Long. 77° 20' W.). 
Specimens of brown earthy limestone, with a fetid smell 
•when sti'uck with a hammer ; resembles closely the limestone of 
Cape York, Lancaster Sound. 

No. Vni. DEPOT BAY, BeUof s Straits (Lat.72'' N.; Long. 94° W.). 

1. Maclurea sp. 

2. CyatliophyUum helianihoides (Goldfuss). 

The limestone at this locality is white and saccharoid, with 
large rhombohedral crystals of calcspar. 

*No. rS. CAPE FARRAND, East side of Boothia (Lat. 71° 38' ; 
Long. 93° 35' W.). 

1. Atrypa plioca (Salter). Sutherland; PL V. Fig. 3. 

2. Loxonema Rossi. Journ. R. D. S., Vol. I. PI. V. 

3. Atrypa (ribbed sp.) 

4. Calamopora Goihlandica (Goldfuss). 

5. Cyrloceras sp. 

The rock at this locality is a grey mud limestone. 

* Collected by Dr. Walker, surgeon to the ' Fcx ' E.'tpedilion. 



No. IV. APPENDIX. 853 

No. X. WEST SHORE OF BOOTHIA (Lat. 70° to 71° N.), 

containing the Magnetic Pole. 

1. AtrypapTioca (Salter). 

2. Loxonema Rossi. Joiirn. R. D. S., Vol. I. PI. V. 

3. Favistella FranUini (Salter). Journ. R. D. S., Vol. I. PI. XI. 

4. Loxonema Salicri. Sutherland; PI. V. Fig. 18. 

The cream-colored chalky limestone found on the west side of 
Prince of Wales' Island here occurs, and is generally destitute 
of fossils, like that of Prince of Wales' Land. 

*No. XI. FURY POINT (Lat. 72° 50' N; Long. 92° W.). 

1. Cromus Arcticus. Journ. R. D. S., Vol. I. PI. VI. 

2. Maclurea sp. 

3. Mya rotundata (?). 

4. Stromatopora concentrica. 

5. Cyatliophyllura helianthoides (Goldfuss). 

6. Petraia hina. 

7. Calamopora Goihlandica (Goldfuss). 

8. Favosites megastoma (?). 

9. Cyatliopliyllum ccespitosum. 

10. Favistella FranUini (Salter). Sutherland ; PI. VI. Fig. 3. 

11. Strepliodes Austini (Salter). Sutherland; PI. VI. Fig. 6. 

12. Atrypaphoca (Salter). 

The limestone here is of the same grey earthy aspect as at 
Beechey Island and Port Leopold. 

t No. XII PRINCE OF WALES' LAND (Lat. 72° 38' N. ; 
Long. 97° 15' W.). 

1. CyatliopTiyllum sp. 

2. Calamopora Gothlandica (Goldfuss). 

3. Stromatopora concentrica. 

These fossils occur in grey earthy limestone, near its junction 
with the red arenaceous limestone already described. 

No. Xm. WEST COAST OF KING WILLIAM'S ISLAND. 

1. Loxonema Rossi. Journ. R. D. S., Vol I. PI. V. 

2. Catenipora escliaroides. 

3. Orihoceras sp. 

* Collected by Dr. Walker, surgeon to the ' Fox ' Expedition. 
t Collected by Captain Allen Young. 

30* X 



354 APPENDIX. No. IV. 

4. Maclurea sp. 

5. Atn/pa sp. 

G. Syringnpora geniculata.- 

7. Clkiophjllum sp. 

8. Orlhis elegantula. 

III. — T/ie Carboniferous Rocks. 

The Upper Silurian limestones already described are 
sncceeded by a most remarkable scries of close-grained 
w^hite sandstones, containing numerous beds of highly 
bituminous coal, and but few marine fossils. In fact, 
the only fossil shell found in these beds, so far as I 
know, in any part of the Arctic Archipelago, is a spe- 
cies of ribbed Atnjpa, which I believe to be identical 
with the Atrj/pa fallax of the carboniferous slate of 
Ireland. These sandstone beds are succeeded by a 
series of blue limestone beds, containing an abundance 
of the marine shells commonly found in all parts of 
the world where the carboniferous deposits are at all 
developed. The line of junction of these deposits 
with the Silurians on which they rest is N.E. to E.N.E. 
(true). Like the former they occur in low flat beds, 
sometimes rising into cliffs, but never reaching the 
elevation attained by the Silurian rocks in Lancaster 
Sound. 

The following lists contain the principal fossils 
and specimens presented to the Royal Dublin Society 
by Captain M'Clintock and by Captain Sir Robert 
M^Clure. 

Coal, sandstone, clay ironstone, and brown hematite, were 
found along a line stretching E.N.E. from Baring Island, through 
the south of Melville Island, Byam jNIartin's Island, and the 
■whole of Bathurst Island. Carboniferous limestone, with char- 
acteristic fossils, was found along the north coast of Bathurst 
Island, and at Hillock Point, Melville Island. 



No. IV. APPENDIX. 355 

I have marked on the map the coal-beds of the 
Pany Islands, which appear to be prolonged into 
Baring Island, as observed by Captain M'Clm-e. The 
discovery of coal in these islands is due to Parry, but 
the evidence of the extent and quantity in which it 
may be found was obtained during the expeditions of 
Austin and Belcher. In addition to the localities sur- 
veyed by himself, Captain M'Clintock has given me 
specimens of the coal found at other places by other 
explorers; and it is from a comparison of all these 
specimens that I have ventured to lay down the out- 
crop of the coal-beds, which agrees remarkably well 
with the boundary of the formations laid down from 
totally different data. 

No. I. HILLOCK POINT, MelTllle Island (Lat. 76° N.; Long. 
111° 45' W.). 

Productussulcatus. Journ. R. D. S., Vol. I. PI. VII. Figs. 1, 2, 3, 

4,7. 
Spirifer Arcticus. Journ. R. D. S., Vol. I. Pi. IX. 

No. n. BATHURST ISLAND, North Coast, Cape Lady 

Franklin (?) (Lat. 76° 40' N.; Long. 98° 45' W.). 
Spirifer Arcticus. Journ. R. D. S., Vol. I. PI. IX. Fig. 1. 
Litliostrotion basaltiforme. 

*No. m. BALLAST BEACH, Baring Island (Lat. 74° 30' N.; 
Long. 121° W.). 

1. "Wood fossilized by brown hematite ; structure quite distinct. 

2. Cone of the spruce fir, fossilized by brown hematite. 

No. IV. PRINCESS ROYAL ISLANDS, Prince of Wales' Strait, 
Baring Island (Lat. 72° 45' N.; Long. 117° 30' W.). 
1. Nodules of clay ironstone, converted partially into brown hema- 
tite. 

* These specimens are "Drift," but are mentioned here- as they were 
founi on the carboniferous sandstone area. 



356 APPENDIX. No. IV. 

2. Native copper in large masses, procured from the Esquimaux 

in Prince of Wales' Strait. 

3. Brown hematite, pisolitlc. 

4. Greyish yellow sandstone, same as Cape Hamilton and Byam 

Martin's Island. 

5. Terehratula aspera (Sehlotheim). Joum. E. D. S., Vol. I. PI. IX. 

Fig- 4. 
This interesting brachiopod was found in the lime- 
stone by Captain M'Clurc, at the Princess Royal Isl- 
ands, in the Prince of Wales' Strait, between Baring 
Island and Prince Albert Land. I have no hesitation 
in pronouncing it to be identical with Schlothcim's 
fossil, which is found in the greatest abundance at 
Gerolstein, in the Eifel. Banks' Land, or Baring Isl- 
and, is composed of sandstone, similar to that at Byarri 
Martin's Island, and at the Bay of Mercy. This sand- 
stone contains beds of coal, apparently the continuation 
of the well-known coal-beds of INIelville Island. It is 
a remarkable fact, that these carboniferous sandstones 
underlie beds of undoubtedly the carboniferous lime- 
stone type, and that at Byam Martin's Island, where 
fossils are found in this sandstone, they are allied to 
Atrypa fallax and other forms characteristic of the 
lower sandstones of the carboniferous epoch. It is, 
therefore, highly probable that the coal-beds of Mel- 
ville Island are very low down in the series, and do 
not correspond in geological position with the coal-beds 
of Europe, which rest on the summit of the carbonif- 
erous beds. It is interesting to find at Princess Royal 
Island, where, from the general strike of the beds, we 
should expect to find the Silurian limestone underlying 
the coal-bearing sandstones, that this limestone does 
occur, and contains a fossil, T. aspera.) eminently char- 
acteristic of the Eifelian beds of Germany, which form, 
in that country, the Upper Silurian Strata. 



No. IV. APPENDIX. 357 

No. V. CAPE HAMILTON, Baring Island (Lat. 74° 15' N. ; Long. 
117° 30' W.). 

1. Greyisli-ycUow sandstone, like that found in situ in Byam Mar- 

tin's Island. 

2. Coal. — The coal found in the Arctic regions, excepting that 

brought from Disco Island, West Greenland, which is of ter- 
tiary origin, presents everywhere the sanae characters, which 
are somewhat remarkable. It is of a brownish color and lig- 
naceous textm-e, in fine layers of brown coal and jet-black 
glossy coal intcrstratified in delicate bands not thicker than 
paper. It has a woody ring under the hammer, recalling the 
peculiar clink of some of the valuable gas coals of Scotland. It 
burns with a dense smoke and brilKaut flame, and would make 
an excellent gas coal; and, in fact. It resembles in many 
respects some varieties of the coal which has acquired such 
celebrity in the Scotch and Prussian law-courts, under the 
title of the Torbane Hill mineral. 

No. VI. CAPE DUNDAS, Melville Island (Lat. 74° 30' N. ; Long. 
113° 45' W.). 
Fine specimens of coal. 

No. VH. CAPE SIR JAMES EOSS, Melville Island (Lat- 74° 
45' N. ; Long. 114° 30' W.). 
Sandstone passing into blue quartzite. 

No. VIH. CAPE PROVIDENCE, Melville Island (Lat. 74° 20' N. ; 
Long. 112° 30' W.). 

A specimen of ci-lnoldal limestone, apparently similar to that oc- 
curring In Griffith's Island, from which, however, it could not 
have been brought by the present drift of the floating ice, as 
the set of the currents Is constant from the west. If brought 
to Its present position by Ice, it must have been under circum- 
stances differing considerably from those now prevallbg in 
Barrow's Strait. 

Yellowish-grey sandstone. 

Clay ironstone passing into pisolitic hematite. 

No. IX. "WINTER HARBOR, Melville Island (Lat. 74° 35' N. ; 
Long. 110° 45' W.). 
Fine yellow and grey sandstone. 



358 APPENDIX. No. IV. 

No. X. BPtroPORT mLET, :Mc1v111c Island (Lat. 75'' N. ; Long. 
109° ^V.). 
Coal, with impressions of Sphenopteris. 

Ferruginous spotted white sandstone. 

Clay ironstone, passing into brown hematite. 

No. XL SKENE BAY, Melville Island (Lat. 75° N.; Long. 
108° W.). 
Bituminous coal, with finely divided laminae, associated with 
brown crystalline limestone, with cherty beds, and grey- 
yellowish sandstone, passing into brownish-red sandstone. 

No. Xn. HOOPER ISLAND, Liddon's Gulf, Melville Island (Lat. 
75° 5' N.; Long. 112° W.). 
Nodules of clay ironstone, very pure and heavy, associated with 

ferruginous fine sandstone and coal of the usual description. 

The hill-tops and sides along the south shore of Lid- 
don's Gulf, and as far as Cape Dundas, are generally- 
bare, composed of frozen mud, arising from the disin- 
tegration of shale, the annual dissolving snows wash- 
ing them down and giving them a rounded form. The 
southern slopes generally support vegetation. Frag- 
ments of coal are very frequently met with, and at Ihc 
mouth of a ravine on the south shore of Liddon's Gulf 
there is abundance, of very good quality ; it contains a 
considerable quantity of pyrites or bisulphuret of iron. 

No. Xm. BYAM MAPvTIN'S ISLAND (Lat. 75° 10' N. ; Long. 
104° 15' W.). 

Yellowish-grey sandstone, in sku, containing a ribbed Atn/pa, 
allied to the A. primipilaris of V. Buch, and the A.fallax of 
the carboniferous rocks of Ireland. 

Reddish limestone, with broken fragments of shells, of the same 

. description of braehiopod as the last. 

Coal of the usual description. 

Fine-grained red sandstone, passing into red slate. 

Scoriaceous hornblcndic trap (boulders). 



No. IV. APPENDIX. 359 

The sandstone of Byam Martin's Island is of two 
kinds — one red, finely stratified, passing into purple 
slate, and very like the red sandstone of Cape Bunny, 
North Somerset, and some varieties of the red sand- 
stone and slate found between Wolstenholme Sound 
and Whale Sound, West Greenland, lat. 77° N. The 
other sandstone of Byam Martin's Island is fine, pale- 
greenish, or rather greyish-yellow, and not distinguish- 
able in hand specimens from the sandstone of Cape 
Hamilton, Baring Island. It contains numerous shells 
and casts of a terebratuliform brachiopod, closely allied 
to the Terebratula primipilaris of Von Buch, found 
abundantly at Gerolstein in the Eifel. On the whole, 
I incline to the opinion that the sandstones, limestone, 
and coal of Byam Martin's Island, are the correspond- 
ing rocks of Melville Island, Baring Island, and Bath- 
urst Island, are low down in the Carboniferous System, 
and that there is in these northern coal-fields no subdi- 
vision into red sandstone, limestone, and coal-measures, 
such as prevails in the west of Europe. If the different 
points where coal was found be laid down on a map, 
we have in order, proceeding from the south-west — 
Cape Hamilton, Baring Island ; Cape Dundas, Mel- 
ville Island, south ; Bridport Inlet and Skene Bay, 
Melville Island ; Schomberg Point, Graham Moore 
Bay, Bathurst Island ; a line joining all these points is 
the outcrop of the coal-beds of the south of MelviUe 
Island, and runs E.N.E. At all the localities above 
mentioned, and, indeed, in every place where coal was 
found, it was accompanied by the greyish-yellow and 
yellow sandstone already described, and by nodules of 
clay ironstone, passing into brown hematite, sometimes 
nodular and sometimes pisolitic in structure. 



360 APPENDIX. No. IV. 

No. XIY. GRAHAI\I MOORE'S BAY, Bathurst Mand (Lat. 75" 
30' N. ; Long. 102° W.). 
Coal of the usual quality. 

At Cape Lady Franklin, and at many other locali- 
ties along the north shore of Bathur.st Island, carbonif- 
erous fossils in limestone, clay ironstone balls passing 
into brown hematite, cherty limestone, and earthy fos- 
siliferous limestone, with the same species of Atrypa as 
at Byam Martin's Island, Nvere found in abundance by 
Sherard Osborn, Esq., Commander of H.M.S. * Pio- 
neer,' in whose journal the following note respecting 
them may be found : — 

" The above collection was delivered over to Captain 
Sir Edward Belcher, C.B., by Commander Richards, 
at 2 P.M., on 7th Nov. 1853." * 

It is to be hoped that they may soon be made avail- 
able for the elucidation of the geology of this most 
interesting portion of the Arctic discoveries. 

No. XV. BATHURST ISLAND, Bedford Bay (Lat. 75° N.; 

Long. 95° 50' W.). 

In this locality abundance of vesicular scoriaceous trap rocks 

•were found by Captain M'ClIntock ; they appear to nic to be the 

representatives of the volcanic rocks found everywhere at the 

commencement of the carboniferous period. 

No. XVI. CORNWALLIS ISLAND, ]\rDougall Bay. 

1. Syringopora geniculala. Joui-n. R D. S., Vol. I. PI. XL Fig. 2. 

2. Cardiola Salterl Journ. R. D. S., Vol. I. PI. ATI. Fig. 5. 

The Syringopore found at CornwalUs Island appears 
to be identical with the variety of the Irish carbonifer- 
ous S. g-eniculata, in which the corallites are at a dis- 
tance from each other somewhat exceeding their diani- 

* Fi'de Arctic Expeditions, 1854-55, p. 254. 



No. IV. APPENDIX. 361 

etersj and in which the connecting tubes are about two 
diameters apart. 

A question of very considerable geological interest is 
raised by the occurrence together of corals, in the same 
locality, of silurian and carboniferous forms. 

I entertain no doubt of their being in situ, and oc- 
curring in the same beds, for the following reasons : — 
1st. The Syringopores of Griffith's Island were 
found at an elevation of 400 feet above the sea, and, 
therefore, could not be brought by drifting ice. 

2nd. The specimens were apparently of the same 
texture and composition as the native rock, whenever 
the latter was visible from under the snow. 

3rd. I do not believe in the lapse of a long interval 
of time between the silurian and carboniferous depos- 
its, — in fact, in a Devonian period. 

4th. The same blending of corals has been found in 
Ireland, the Bas Boulonnais, and in Devonshire, where 
silurian and carboniferous forms are of common occur- 
rence in the same localities. 

5th. In the carboniferous beds proper of Melville 
Island and Bathurst Island, there were not found, so 
far as I am aware, any corals of the same character as 
those at Griffith's Island, Cornwallis Island, andBeechey 
Island, which could give a supply to be drifted to the 
latter localities in a Pleistocene sea. It is plain, from 
the height at which the corals were found that, if they 
were brought to their present localities by ice, it must 
have been during the period known as Post-tertiary, 
as the present conditions of drift-ice in Barrow's Straits 
do not permit us to suppose them to have been placed 
where we now find them by existing causes. 

The occurrence of coal-beds in such high latitudes 
has been speculated on by many geologists — in my 
31 



3G2 APPENDIX. No. IV. 

opinion, not very satisfactorily; as it is very difficult 
to conceive how, even if the question of temperature 
was settled, plants even of the fern and lycopodium 
type could exist during tiie darkness of the long win- 
ter's night at Melville Island. This difficulty is in- 
creased by the facts made known to us by the dis- 
covery of ammonites and lias fossils in Prince Patrick's 
Island by Captain M'Clintock. 

IV. — The Lias Rocks. 

Many years ago it was asserted by Lieutenant An- 
jou, of the Russian navy, that ammonites had been 
found by him in the cliffs on the south shore of the 
island of New Siberia, off the north coast of Asia, in 
lat. 74'' N. This statement, which was published in 
Admiral Von Wrangcl's journal, attracted but little 
attention, until it was confirmed, as far as probability 
of such fossils occurring at so high a latitude is con- 
cerned, by the remarkable discovery of similar fossils 
by Captain M'Clintock, in lat. 76° 20' N., at Point 
Wilkie, in Prince Patrick's Island. 

In a paper, published by the Royal Dublin Society, 
in the first volume of their journal, p. 223, Captain 
M'Clintock thus describes the finding of these fossils : — 

" After returning to Cape de Bray, we took up flic 
provisions that the officer after whom it is called had 
left for us, and crossed the strait to Point Wilkie ; 
reached it on the 14th May. This traverse was the 
more difficult from the great load upon our sledge, and 
the unfavorable state of the ice and snow. The freshly 
fallen snow was soft and deep, and beneath it the older 
snow lay in furrows across our route, hardened and 
polished by the winter gales and drifts, so that it re- 
sembled marble. 



No. IV. APPENDIX. ' 863 

" On landing I found the beach low, composed of 
mud, with the foot-prints of animals frozen in it. A 
few hundred yards from the beach there are steep hills, 
about 150 feet in height, and upon the sides of these, 
in reddish-colored limestone, casts of fossil shells 
abound. Inland of these, the ordinary pale carbonif- 
erous sandstone and cherty limestone re-appeared. The 
fossils are all small, and of only a few varieties, some 
being ammonites, but the greater part bivalves. They 
differed from any I had met with before, and the rock 
was almost brick-red ; I picked up what appeared to 
be fossil bone [Ichthyosaurus ?)^ only part of it appear- 
ing out of the fragment of the rock. 

" Point Wilkie appears to be an isolated patch of 
liassic age, resting upon carboniferous sandstones and 
limestones, with bands of chert, of the same age as 
the limestones and sandstones of MelviUe Island. The 
eastern shores of Intrepid Inlet is composed of this 
formation; while the western, rising into hills and ter- 
races, is of the underlying carboniferous epoch. At 
the western side of Intrepid Inlet I found upon the ice 
a considerable quantity of white asbestos, but did not 
ascertain from whence it had been brought." 

The fossils thus found in situ, I have no doubt, 
belong to the liassic period; and as their geological 
interest is indubitable, I offer no apology for inserting 
here the following description, written by me on Cap- 
tain M'Clintock's return to Dublin.from his third Arctic 
expedition. 

No. 1. WILKIE POINT, Prince Patrick's Land (Lat. 76° 20' N. ; 
Long. 117° 20' W.). 

LIAS FOSSILS. 

(a) Ammonites M^Clintocki. Joum. R. D. S., Vol. I. PI. IX. Figs. 
2, 3, 4. 



364 



APPENDIX. 



No. IV. 



Monotis septentrionalis. Journ. R. D. S., Vol. I. PI. IX. Figa. 
6, 7. 

Pleurotomaria, sp. Journ. R. D. S., Vol. I. PI. IX. Fig. 8. 

Cast of some Univalve. Journ. R. D. S., Vol. I. PI. IX. Fig. 7, 

Nucula, sp. 
(a) Ammonites M'Clintocki (Haughton). — Testa compressa, carin- 
ata, anfraclibus latis, lateribus, complanatis, (ransversim undato-costatis ; 
cosiis simplicibus, juxla marginem interiorem levigatis ; dorso carinato 
acuto ; aperturCi sagUtatu, compressu, andce carinata; seplis lateribus 
4-lobaiis. 

This fine ammonite resembles several species com- 
mon in the upper lias of the Plateau de Larzac, Sev- 
ennes, in France. It approaches A. concavus of the 
lower Oolite, but is distinguished by having only four 
lobes on the lateral margins of the septa, and by its 
showing no tendency to a tricarinated keel. The fol- 
lowing measurements give an exact idea of its form, 
as compared with that of the species mentioned : — 





Diameter, 
Inches. 


Width of 

last Spire. 

Diam.=100. 


1 1 
Thickness Overlapping Width 
of last of last of 
Spire. Spire. Umbilic. 


A. M' Clintocki, 
A. concavus, . 


1-83 
2-95 


T0% 






^0% 



The principal difference here observable is in the 
so-mewhat greater size of A. concavus, and the larger 
umbilic of A. M^ Clintocki. It certainly resembles this 
well-known ammonite very closely ; and it appears to 
me difficult to imagine the possibility of such a fossil 
living in a frozen, or even a temperate sea. 

The discovery of such fossils in situ, in 76° north 
latitude, is calculated to throw considerable doubt 
upon the theories of climate which would account for 
all past changes of temperature by changes in the rela- 



No. IV. APPENDIX. 365 

tive position of land and water on the earth's surface. 
No attempt, that I am aware of, has ever been made 
to calculate the number of degrees of change possible 
in consequence of changes of position of land and 
water ; and from some incomplete calculations I have 
myself made on the subject, I think it highly improb- 
able that such causes could have ever produced a tem- 
perature in the sea at 76° north latitude which would 
allow of the existence of ammonites, especially ammo- 
nites so like those that lived at the same time in the 
tropical warm seas of the south of England and 
France, at the close of the Liassic, and commence- 
ment of the lower Oolitic period. 

During the course of the same Arctic expedition in 
which these organic remains were found, Captain Sir 
Edward Belcher discovered in some loose rubble, of 
which a cairn was built on Exmouth Island (lat. 77° 
12' N., long. 96° W.), vertebral bones of, apparently, 
same liassic enaliosaurian. All doubt as to the reality 
of this discovery, and all idea of accounting for the 
occurrence of such remains by drift, rnust be aban- 
doned, as the fossils found by M'Clintock were unques- 
tionably in situ, and it is impossible to evade the con- 
sequences that follow to geological theory from their 
discovery. 

Captain Sherard Osborn, also, found broken ver- 
tebrae of an ichthyosaurus, 150 feet up Rendezvous 
HiU, the north-west extreme of Bathurst Island : of 
these specimens, one lay among a mass of stone t'lat 
had slipped from the N. W. face of the hill ; the other 
was by the side of a ravine or deep watercourse on the 
southern face of the same elevation. I have no doubt 
but that they were in situ. 

I am well aware that the question of light in the 
31* 



3G6 AITENDIX. No. IV. 

Arctic seas will be disposed of by some geologists, 
who will remind us that the saurians, and jirobably the 
ammonites, were endowed with a complicated optical 
apparatus, rendering them capable of using their eyes, 
not only for the distinct vision of objects diflering 
greatly in distance, but also of using them, under 
widely differing conditions of light and darkness ; and 
I readily admit the force of such observations. 

But what are we to say as to the question of tem- 
perature ? It was certainly necessary for an ammonite 
to have a sea free from ice, on which to float and basic 
in the pale rays of the Arctic sun ; and therefore I 
claim a temperature for those seas, at least similar to 
that which now prevails in the British Islands : and 
I may add that the ammonite, from its habits, was 
essentially dependent on the temperature of the air, 
as well as on that of the water. 

There is at present a difference of 49°'5 F. between 
the mean annual temperature of Point Wilkie and 
Dublin; and if this change of temperature be supposed 
to be caused \>y a change of the relative positions of 
land and water, the temperature of Dublin, or of some 
place on the same parallel of latitude, must be sup- 
posed to be raised to 99^-5 F. ; while the temperature 
of the thermal equator will exceed 124° — a tempera- 
ture only a few degrees below that requisite to boil an 
eggl I reject, without scruple, a theory that requires 
such a result, which must be considered as a minimum ; 
as it is probable that the ammonite required a finer cli- 
mate than that of Britain for the full enjoyment of his 
existence. 

The theory of central heat, also, appears to me to be 
open to the same objection, as a mode of explaining 
this remarkable geological fact ; for it will simply add 



No. IV. APPENDIX. 367 

a constant to our present climates, leaving the differ- 
ences to remain, as at present, to be accounted for 
by latitude and distribution of land and water. The 
astronomical theory of Herschel, also, which would 
account for former changes of climate by changes in 
the radiating power of the sun, would only increase 
the temperature at each latitude, leaving the differ- 
ences as at present. 

The only speculation with which I am acquainted, 
which is capable of solving this opprobrium geolog- 
icorum, is the hypothesis of a change in the axis of ro- 
tation of the earth, the admission of which, as a geo- 
logical possibility, is mathematically demonstrable, and 
which has recently had some singular evidence in its 
favor advanced by geologists. In 1851, I brought for- 
ward, at the Geological Society of Dublin, a case of 
angular fragments of granite occurring in the carbonif- 
erous limestone of the County Dublin ; and explained 
the phenomena by the supposition of the transporting 
power of ice. In 1855, Professor Ramsay laid before 
the Geological Society of London a full and detailed 
theory of glaciers and ice as agents concerned in the 
formation of a remarkable breccia, of Permian age, 
occurring in the central counties of England ; and still 
more recently the same agent has been employed by 
the geological surveyors of India to account for the 
transport of materials at geological periods long ante- 
cedent to those in, which ice transport is commonly 
supposed to have commenced. The motion of the 
earth's axis would reconcile all the facts known, and it 
must be regarded as a geological desideratum to deter- 
mine its amount and direction, and to assign the cause 
of such a movement. The solution of this problem I 
regard as quite possible. 



868 APPENDIX. No. IV. 

It is well worthy of remark, that the arguments from 
the occurrence of coal-plants and ammonites strengthen 
each other; the coal-plants rendering the question of 
li^ht, and the ammonites that of heat, insuperable ob- 
jections to the admission of any received geological 
hypothesis to account for the finding of such remains, 
in situ, in latitudes so high as those of Melville Island, 
Prince Patrick's Island, and Exmouth Island. 

V. — The Superficial Deposits. 

The surface of the ground, where exposed, through- 
out the Arctic Archipelago, does not appear to be 
covered with thick deposits of clay or gravel, such as 
are found generally in the north of Euorpe, and re- 
ferred by geologists to what they call " the Glacial 
Epoch." There are not, however, wanting abundant 
evidences of the transport of drift materials, and there 
is some good evidence, collected by Captain M'Clin- 
tock, of the direction in which the drift was moved. 

Specimens of granite, which I have no hesitation in 
referring to the characteristic granite of the west side 
of North Somerset, were found at Leopold Harbor 
(North Somerset) and at Graham Moore Bay (Bath- 
urst Island) ; one of these localities is N.E. and the 
other N.W. of the granite of North Somerset, from 
which I infer that there was no constant prevailing 
direction for the drift ice that carried these boulders, 
but that they were transported to the northward in 
various directions, according to the varying motion of 
the currents that moved the ice. The boulder of gran- 
ite at Port Leopold is 100 miles N.E. of the granite 
which gave origin to it ; and the specimens from Gra- 
ham Moore Bay are 190 miles to the N.W. of their 
source. 



No. IV. APPENDIX. 369 

At Cape E-ennell (North Somerset), in a direction 
intermediate between the two former directions, a re- 
markable boulder of the same granite was found, con- 
firming the general direction of the transporting force 
from south to north. Its position and size are thus 
recorded by Captain M'Clintock : — " Near Cape Ren- 
nell we passed a very remarkable rounded boulder of 
gneiss or granite ; it was 6 yards in circumference, and 
stood near the beach, and some 15 or 20 yards above 
it; one or two masses of rounded gneiss, although 
very much smaller, had arrested our attention at Port 
Leopold." 

It is well known that Captain Sir Robert M'Clure 
brought home specimens of pine-trees found in the 
greatest abundance in the ravines on the west coast of 
Baring Island ; one of his specimens preserved in the 
museum of the Royal Dublin Society measures 15 
inches by 12 inches, and contains three knots that 
prove it formed a portion of the stem high above its 
root. The bark is not found on this specimen, which 
does not represent the full thickness of the tree ; I have 
estimated that this fragment contains 70 rings of an- 
nual growth. 

Similar remains were found by Captain M'Clintock 
and Lieutenant Mecham in Prince Patrick's Island, 
and in Wellington Channel by Sir Edward Belcher. 
On the coast of New Siberia, Lieutenant Anjou found 
a clay cliff" containing stems of trees still capable of 
being used as fuel. The original observers all agree 
in thinking that these trees grew where they are now 
found ; and Captain Osborne, in mentioning Sir Rod- 
erick I. Murchison's opinion that they are drift timber, 
justly adds the remark, that a sea sufficiently free from 
ice to allow of their being drifted from the south would 

Y 



37a APPENDIX. No. IV. 

indicate also a climate sufficiently mild to allow of 
their having grown upon the land where they now 
occur. Mr. Hopkins, in his anniversary address as 
President of the Geological Society of London, has 
published a remarkable geological speculation, which 
would account for the facts above mentioned.* So 
far as the evidence of drift boulders is concerned, 1 
have shown that the direction of the currents was from 
the south; a fact which falls in with the drift theory, 
so far as it goes. 

We cannot, however, dissociate these trees from the 
facts connected with the distribution of the remains of 
the Siberian Mammoth in Asia and America. It is 
now known that this elephant was provided with a 
warm fur, and that his food was of a kind which grows 
even now in Northern Siberia; so that the drift theory, 
which was formerly supposed necessary to account for 
the occurrence of these remains, has now been quietly 
dropped, suh silentio, by the geologists. Many other 
drift theories have, in like mannner, lived their short 
day, and gone the way of all false hypotheses ; among 
others, the drift theory of the origin of coal. Further 
investigation may show that the glacial epoch of 
Europe was one of a very different character in Asia 
and America, and that, while glaciers clothed the sides 
of Snowdon and Lugnaquillia, pine forests flourished 
in the Parry Islands, and the Siberian elephants wan- 
dered on the shores of a sea washed by the waves of 
an ocean that carried no drifting ice. 

There is abundant evidence, however, that the Arctic 
Archipelago was submerged in very recent geological 
periods ; for we know that subfossil shells, of species 

* Journ. Geol. Soc. Lond., vol. VIII. p. Ixiv. 



No. IV. APPENDIX. 371 

that now inhabit the waters of the neighboring seas, 
are found at considerable heights throughout the whole 
group of islands. M'Clure found shells of the Cijprina 
Islandica^ at the summit of the Coxcomb range, in 
Baring Island, at an elevation of 500 feet above the 
sea-level ; Captain Parry, also, has recorded the occur- 
rence of Venus (probably Cyprina Islandica) on Byam 
Martin's Island; and in the recent voyage of the ' Fox,' 
Dr. Walker, the Surgeon of the expedition, found the 
following subfossil shells at Port Kenedy, at eleva- 
tions of from 100 to 500 feet : — 

1. Sax'icava rugosa. 

2. Tellina proxima. 

3. Asiarfe Arctica (Borealis.) 

4. Mya Uddevallensis. 
6. Mya truncata. 

6. Cardium sp. 

7. Buccinum undatum. 

8. Acmea testudinalis. 

9. Balanus Uddevallensis. 

At the same place a portion of the palate-bone of a 
whale (Right Whale) was found at an elevation of 
150 feet. 

All these facts indicate the former submergence of 
the Arctic Archipelago, but this submergence must 
have been anterior to the period when pine forests 
clothed the low sandy shores of the slowly emerging 
islands, the remains of which forests now occupy a 
position at least 100 feet above high-water mark. 

The geological map which I am enabled to pub- 
lish from the data collected by Captains M' Clintock, 
M'Clure, Osborn, &c., is an enlargement of that which 
was published in 1857 by the Royal Society of Dublin, 
to illustrate the fine collection of Arctic fossils and 



S72 APPENDIX. No. IV 

minerals deposited in the museum of that body by 
Captains M'Clintock and M'Clure. In perfecting it 
for its present purpose I have availed myself of all the 
other sources of infornriation within my reach, among 
which I am bound to mention in particular the ex- 
cellent Appendix to Dr. Sutherland's ' Voyage of the 
Lady Franklin and Sophia,' written by Mr. Salter, 
Palaeontologist of the Geological Survey of Great 
Britain. 

Many of the mineral specimens from Greenland, 
and the fossils from Cape Riley, Cape Farrand, Point 
Fury and Brentford Bay, were collected by Dr. David 
"Walker, surgeon and naturalist to the ' Fox ' Expedi- 
tion. 



1 



No. V. 



APPENDIX. 



373 



No. V. 

LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS TO THE 'FOX' EXPEDITIOK 



£ s.d. 

AcLAND, "Sir T. D. Bart 100 

Adams. Dr. Walter, Edinburgh. 3 3 

Aldricii, Captain, R.N 110 

Allan, Rob. M., Esq .- 1 1 

Allen, Captain Robert 5 5 

Allen, Captain, R.N 2 2 

Ames, Mrs 5 

Ames, Bliss 10 

Anon 6 

Armstrong, Mrs 1 1 

Armstrong, children of Mrs. ... 089 

Arnold, Mrs 110 

Arrowsmith, John, Esq 5 

Austin, Rear-Adm. Uoratio T. 

R.N., C.B 5 

Babbage, Charles, Esq 10 

Baikie, Dr 110 

Baker, Mrs 5 

Earkworth, Geo., Esq 5 

Barras, Miss 110 

Barrett, H. J., Ksq 10 

Barrow, John, Esq 25 

Barstow, Lieutenant, R.N 10 

Barth, Dr. Henry 5 5 

Bath, W. J. C, Esq 2 6 

Batty, Mrs. J. M 110 

Beaufort, Rear-Adm. Sir Fran- 
cis, K.C.B 50 

Bell, Thos., Esq., Pres. Lin. Soc. 10 10 

Bennett, John S., Esq 5 

Birch, J. W. N., Esq 10 

Bird, Captain, R.N 5 

Birmingham, small sums col- 
lected at Evans' Library 8 1 

Booth, Mrs 5 

Eorton. Mrs., collected by 1 10 

Boston, collected at, by Mr. 

Morton 4 4 

Eovill, Walter, Esq 5 

Eoyer, Lieut. R.N 10 

Boyle, the Hon. Carolina C 1 

Brigg, collected at 1 1 

Brine, Captain, R.E 110 

Brooking, J. Holdsworth, Esq. . 10 

Brown, Robert, Esq., V.P.L.S.. 20 

Brown, John, Esq 5 5 

Brown, J. E., Esq., R.N 5 

Bruce, the Rev. C 110 

Burgoyne, Captain, R.N 1 

Burton, Alfred, Esq 1 1 

Byron, the Hon. Fred 5 

Chesnet, Major-General 2 2 

CoUinson, Captain, R.N., C.B. . 20 

Coningham, W., Esq., M.P 100 

Coote, C. W., Esq 10 

Coote, Charles, Esq 10 

Courtauld, Samuel, Esq 25 

Courtauld, George, Esq 15 

Coutts, Messrs. & Co 50 

32 



£ s. d. 
Crasp, J., Esq., Surgeon, 63rd 

Regt 10 

Crauford, John, Esq 5 

Cress well, S. Gurney, Comman- 
der, R N 5 



Dalgett, F. T., Esq 10 10 

DolaRoquette,M., V.P.ofGeog. 

Soo. of Paris, 1000 fr 40 

Dilke, C. W., Esq 5 

Dixon. James, Esq 10 

Do.xat; Alexis J., E.=q 10 10 

Doxat, Miss H., collected by. . . 4 

"Dubious" 2 



Dufferin, Lord 25 

Edgar, Mrs., collected by 5 

Ellesmere, the Earl of. 15 

Elphinstone, the Hon. Mount- 
Stewart 10 

Elton, Sir Arthur H., Bart 5 5 

Emanuel, Ezekiel, Esq 1 



Faikholme, the Hon. Mrs 150 

FiUiter, George, Esq 10 

Fitton, Dr 21 

Fortescue, Rev. T. F. G 2 2 



Gakling, H., Esq 1 

Gassiot, J. P., Esq 25 

Gimingham, W., Esq., & Mrs. . 2 

Gipps, Lady 5 

Gowen, J. R., Esq 5 

Graves, Messrs. Pall Mall 1 

Griffiths, G. H., Esq 5 

Gruneisen, Ch. Lewis, Esq 1 

Gruneisen, Mrs 1 

Guillemard, the Rev. W. H. . . . 5 

Guillemard, Miss 1 

Hall, Jas., Esq 5 

Hanbury, Mrs 1 

Hardiuge, Commander, R.N. . . 

Hardwicke, Philip, Esq 5 

Harney, Julian, Esq., collected 

by, at Jersey 50 

Healcs, Alfred, Esq 5 

Herring, Miss 2 

Hicks, John, Esq 2 

Hill, Col. 63rd Regt 1 

Hodgson, Mrs 10 

Holland, Commander, R.N .... 5 

Tlollingsworth, H., Esq 2 

Holland, Rob., Esq 10 

Hooker, Dr. J. D 5 

Hornby, Miss Georgina 100 

Hornby, the Rev. Edward 25 

Hornby, >Irs. Edmund. 5 

Hornby, Miss Georgina, col- 
lected by 13 

Hovejl, W. H. Esq 6 



1 











2 








9 








1 





5 





1 





1 























1 





10 

















5 





2 





























2 





10 





5 























4 





6 






374 



APPENDIX. 



No. V 



£ s. 

Hughes, Lieuteuant, R N 2 

I.VGUS, Lnflv 10 

Irby, T. \V.', Esq 1 1 

Jackson, N. Ward, Esq 21 

Jansou, .T. C, Ksfj 5 5 

JeaiifS, II. W., Esq., U.N 10 

Jersey " Times " 2 10 

Kellett, Commodore, C.B 10 

Kendall, Mrs 1 

Kendall, the llev. Professor. ... 10 

Key, Lieut., K.N 5 

King, William, Esq 5 

Laird, MaogreKor, E-q 60 

Laird. John, Esq 25 

L. and N. W 1 4 

Lanford, J., Esq., Quartermas- 
ter 63rd Kcginient 10 

Langhorne, A., Esq 1 1 

Larcom. JIrs 1 

Leach, William, Esq 5 5 

Lo Feuvrc, W. J., Esq 50 

Lcfroy. C. E., Esq 2 

Leicester, the Uev. F 1 1 

Letlibridge, Lieut., R.N 5 

" Lochmaben Castle," Owners 

of the 5 5 

Lyall, D. Esq., K.N.,SI.D 5 

Mackintosh, Eneas, Esq 10 

Maguire, Captain, R.N 3 3 

Ilaitlaiid, Capt. SirThos., R.N. 1 
Majendie, Ashhurst, Esq., and 

Mr.s 100 

Servants of the above 14 

Malhy, Messrs 5 

Malby, Messrs., Workmen in 
their Establishment by a Gd. 

Subscription 4 11 

Mansfield, W. IL S., Esq 10 

Mantell, Dr A. A 1 

Markhani, Clements, E.sq 1 1 

Marlcman, Mrs 1 

M-Crea. Captain, R.N 10 

M'Kiiil.ay, Miss 1 

M-Ki:ilay, Miss Eli7Jibeth 1 

I\I' William, Dr. R.N 1 1 

Merrv, W. L., Esq 1 1 

Morris, Rev. F n 1 

Morris. Sir Armine, Bart 5 

Murchison, Sir Roderick Iinpev, 
G.C.St.S., Pre-sident of the 

Royal Geographical Society. . . 100 

Murray, John, Esq 20 

Nares, Fras., Esq 2 2 

Newall, W. L., Esq 100 

Nicholson, Sir Charles 5 

N.J 2 2 

Norwood, collected at, by a 

Lady 7 15 

OMMANi<iEr,Capt. Erasmus, R.N. 2 

Osborn, Sir George, Bart 1 



£ t. 1. 

Paget, A. F., Esq 10 6 

Paget, C. ir. M.. lv<q 110 

Palscv, Gen. Sir Charles AV., 

K.C.B 10 

Second Sub.scriptiou 10 

Third Sub.scription 5 

Pattin.son, n.L.,Esq 50 9 

Pearcc, Stephen. E-sq 2 2 

Phillimore, Captjiiu, R.N 2 2 

Pigou, Fred., E-q 10 

Prescott. Vice- Admiral Sir Hen- 
ry, K.C.B 6 

R.twxsLEr, the Rev. Drummond 6 

Ilawsnley, Mrs, coUecte.l by 10 
Rawuslcy, William Franklin, 
collected by, at Uppingham 

School 10 

Raynsford, Mrs 110 

Reynardson, II. B., lisq 6 

Rogers, Lieut., R.N 10 

Rogot, Dr. P. M 6 

Hop; r, Geo.. ICfq 5 5 

lloss, Kear-Admiral Sir J.as. C. . 21 

r>upcrt'8 I>and, Bishop of 5 

Sabine, M-ijor-Cicneral 25 

Sadler, W. F., E-iq 10 10 

Pefton, the Countess of. 10 

Shearlev, W.. Esq 2 

Shcil, Sir Justin 6 

Shenell, John Tulmin, Esq. .. . 5 6 

Simpson, J., Esq., R.N 1 10 

Skcv, Dr 2 2 

Smith, Eric E.. Esq 2 

Smith. John Uenry, Egq 10 10 

Smith, O.sborn, Esq 2 2 

Smith. Archibald, Esq 5 5 

Sparrow, J;i.«.. E^q 5 

St. A.«aph, the Bishop of. 10 

St. Davids, the Bishop of. 10 

St. Selger, A. B 5 

Stiinton, J. J., E.sq 3 8 

Statham, J. L., E.<q 110 

Stephenson. Robert, E.<q 20 

Stirling. Commander. RN 10 

Str/elecUi, Count P. dc 2.0 

Swinburne, Re;ir-Admiral 30 

Sykes, Col., M.P 5 

Taylor, William, E.«q 5 

Tennant, James, Esq 2 

T. II., collected in shillings by. 2 

Thackeray, W. Jl., Esq 5 

Thompson, J., Esq 1 1 D 

Tindal, Commander. R.N 2 2 

Tinner, W. II., F^sq., Q.C if) 

Tito, W., E.sq., M.P 50 

Trcvelvan, Sir W. C, Bart 4i) 

Trevelyan. Ixadv 10 

Trevilun, M C., M-q 2 2 

Trollope, Cammandor, R.N 2 2 

Tucketf. Fred., Esq 6 9 

Tudor, J.. Eq 10 

Turner, Alfred, Esq 1.') 

Twcedio, W. M, Esq 6 

Vincent, John, Esq 10 



No. V. 



APrENDIX. 



375 



£ s. d. 

■Walker, James, E<q 21 

■Washington, Captain. R.N., Ily- 

drographcrof the Navy 21 

■Waterfuid, jCdward, Esq 5 

■Wayse, the Itev .7. Vv' 5 

■Weld, Charles H., Esq 5 

Whoatstone, Professor 5 

■\VilIes, Hon. Mr. Justice 21 

■Wilson, Kobert, Esq 116 

Wittenoom, Mess 110 

Wodebou.<;e, Commander 10 

Woodoork, J. Parry, Esq 5 

Worsley, Jl.arcus, Esq 10 

■^'right. the iiev. R. F 2 2 

Wrottesley, Lord 50 

rouiTG, Chas. F., Esq 5 



£ 

Young, Miss. 5 

■Voung, A. ■^'erity, Esq 2 

Yule, Mrs. ri 6 

The brotlier an-* sisters of the 
late John and ?honias Hart- 
nell, of II. M.S. ' Erebus,' 

buried at Eeechey Island 5 

A Commander, R N 

A Commander in the Mercliant 

Service 500 

A Friend. C. H 

A Friend \ 

The daughters of a retired Com- 
mander 2 

A Sympathiser 1 



s. d. 




JE2981 8 9 



A life-boat, presented by Messrs. White of Cowes. 

A large quantity of preserved potatoes, by Messrs. King, late Edwards. 

Apparatus for lowering a boat at sea, presented by Mr. Clifford, the inveot-or. 

Three travelling-tents, by Messrs. Winsor and Newton. 

A stove, by Blr. Rettic. 

20 dozen "Isle of Wight sauce," by Mr. Tucker of Newport. 

Apparatus for reefing topsails, from Mr. Cunningham, the inventor. 



'Vi 



LoWi 



!»-'- ^f «'"^>*'>^ / ■,'~-k -'."'•"""■'JUL.* ' 



i^ 











\K. '*\ _, - - ■. \ 



, _U- 









^^^~ '""n" ° ^ 






>if'"i^<!i^^'',, 









" }'^^^\ 



ri\ 



-'^l^ 'y 1 



xK ----v. 



-M-C, 






f^:. 



AKCTtr SHORES 01' 


AMERICA 


(„ A CM- on, p., 


■ y 


(■APT? Mr CLINTOrKS 


XAliRATIvr.. 


N 




IflSf). 




A 




^. „ ..-„-»-«»i^.„ ,»,>_ 








z*..^.^., r«, - -.-^ , 







...x 



I 




f/hO '.QCC » 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



029 708 046 5 



! 



< ♦ 






!iU; 



Mi:<m^\ 






u( 



m 



,j!i]!t,,. 
'''■', M 



\iV.l 



]{i\i\ 

i>;i< 



m 



■(.■'•■i.t'; 



'liii 



4 




M 



mm 

'i '.'r'U'i-t'l 

■■it, in; 






mil. 



mw 



